


Beyond the Sea

by atreiya



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Dirty Talk, F/M, Goro Strips Down, I Guess It's More Smut Now!, Masturbation, Masturbation in Shower, Some Smut but Probably Not as Much as You Want
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:15:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28600539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atreiya/pseuds/atreiya
Summary: This story is a post-Devil ending continuation taking place two years after the events in the game, with V still housed in Mikoshi and Takemura Goro having been given oversight of V's resurrection project. Needless to say, Goro is working to get V out of there and back in her body (or a body). The story title is the name of an old song and ties in to a line near the end of Chapter 1.I haven't been in much of a mood to write fanfic over the last couple of years until I blew off some steam with Cyberpunk 2077 recently and found out that the striking Japanese yojimbo with the pretty eyes (JOHNNY SAID IT, NOT ME...but he does have pretty eyes and IDGAF that Johnny was being a sarcastic dick) who checked off every possible box that I have and promptly fell for was not romanceable.EDIT: And a minor description update after realizing I left it saying "the end of the story" instead of "the end of Chapter 1" after ultimately deciding to go multi-chapter. Admittedly, I probably should have paid attention to that a bit sooner. :P
Relationships: Goro Takemura & Female V, Goro Takemura & V, Goro Takemura/V
Comments: 21
Kudos: 73





	1. 俺の心に 成っていた (Ore no Kokoro ni Natte Ita)

**Author's Note:**

> Who knew that studying Japanese for four years in college and watching Japanese shows (jidaigeki in particular) for decades would ever come in handy for fan-fiction? And yet now it has! Anyhow, here we go with terms and translations (good thing I didn't write more in Japanese or I would have driven myself and all of you completely insane).
> 
> 1) 申し訳ありません、竹村さん (Moushiwake arimasen, Takemura-san) = I apologize, Takemura-san.  
> * You can consider this to be a fairly high-level of apology but not the highest level of apology.
> 
> 2) くそがき (kusogaki) = fucking brat  
> * "Kuso" means "shit," but in a compound word like this, you can take it to mean "fucking brat" (I mean, if you want to go with "shitty brat," you can).
> 
> 3) 初恋 (hatsukoi) = first love
> 
> 4) 四世 (yonsei) = fourth generation  
> * As in fourth-generation Japanese-American in this case.
> 
> 5) 心 (shin/kokoro) = heart/spirit  
> * Per the story, "shin" is the on-yomi and "kokoro" is the kun-yomi (to be explained below in a minute if you want to get this out of the way now).
> 
> 6) 漢字 (kanji) = kanji is the Japanese system of writing using Chinese characters  
> * Like, duh!
> 
> 7) 音読み (on-yomi) = the Chinese reading of a kanji character  
> * The "on" in "on-yomi" refers to sound, and it amounts to the phonetic pronunciation based on the original Chinese.
> 
> 8) 訓読み (kun-yomi) = the Japanese reading of a kanji character/word
> 
> 9) ひらがな (hiragana) = hiragana  
> * This is the cursive syllabary you see used.
> 
> 10) カタカナ (katakana) = katakana  
> * This is the syllabary that's used for foreign words, although there are some exceptions (I have seen a few words that can be written in both hiragana and katakana, but no, I can't tell you why - I've never really looked into it :P ).
> 
> 11) の心に成っていた (Ore no kokoro ni natte ita)  
> * If you speak Japanese, you should be able to get this. For people who don't speak Japanese, it's explained in the scene at the end, so I'm not going to spoil it up here in the notes! :P

Chapter 1

俺の心に 成っていた

(Ore no Kokoro ni Natte Ita)

_Arasaka Tower_

_Night City_

_2079_

_Day One_

The granite walls of the sublevel where the Mikoshi access point was housed had a mirror-like sheen, yet they somehow seemed to swallow every particle of light that struck their polished black surfaces. It was almost as if the edifice whose corridors through which he now strode were the physical manifestation of the Soulkiller program. Takemura Goro shook his head and kept walking, trying to ignore the thought. _Do not think of all the light consumed by the walls of this soul prison,_ he told himself, painfully aware of his complicity as a part of Arasaka. When V had pointed out that he, too, had dirtied his hands by doing unsavory things as they had argued during their surveillance of the Arasaka warehouse, Goro had responded with certainty and conviction that the difference between their actions lay in entirely in their motivations—he had done what he had done out of obligation to what he viewed as a higher cause, not for selfish mercenary reasons like hers. His belief had been unshakable back then, but now...now he was not so sure.

Upon seeing the scowl on his face and the smoldering embers of anger in his unearthly silver-ringed eyes, the handful of techs and scientists in his path quickly stepped aside and bowed deeply as they made way for him, not wanting to become the targets of his ire as some of them had on his previous visits. He was wearing the same immaculate white suit that he had worn two years ago in Arasaka Tower, which he had chosen on that day specifically for its symbolism. His thinking at the time had been that if his gambit to avenge his then-fallen lord were to end in failure and disgrace, he wanted to be dressed in appropriate garb. But it had not ended in failure, and he had lived another day thanks at least in part to the tenacity of V—or perhaps that of the demon that had once resided in her. Silverhand had hated Goro according to V, and the feeling had been decidedly mutual once he had found out about the demon. She had not known Goro well in the beginning and they had started out as enemies, so she had kept her counsel on Silverhand’s engram until it became necessary to speak of it to him. To have chosen to open herself up to an enemy in those early days would have been like a lamb naively offering its tender neck up to a wolf and expecting it to act against its nature. In retrospect, he would likely have reacted... _poorly_...to the sudden news of an unpredictable terrorist residing within her brain before trust had been established, so her caution had been warranted.

But as V had later haltingly explained to him, things had subtly shifted over time, she and the demon transmuted by the strange alchemy that existed between them. The pair had gone from adversaries to friends, a trajectory not dissimilar to that of his own relationship with V. While Silverhand had remained fully intent on destroying Arasaka until the last, he had ultimately stayed true to his principles and had not tried to impose his will on V at the end despite her worsening condition. Silverhand may have been many things—largely terrible and inexcusable things—but Goro grudgingly gave the demon a small amount of credit for his refusal to rob V of the ability to decide her own fate as had been done to him fifty years ago by Arasaka. Even Goro could see the fundamental wrongness of it, and to his mind, a clean death would have been the proper punishment—not the abomination that his master’s work had wrought. _Ah, but that would have meant never meeting the cunning thief who tamed a demon,_ he said to himself, the very thought of a world without V in it leaving the taste of ashes in his mouth.

He had only really acknowledged the depth of their bond after Yorinobu’s men had launched their assault in the abandoned apartment where he had held Hanako-sama captive. V should not have gone back for him, and the demon had even tried to dissuade her from making the attempt, just as Goro himself would have done to protect her. Gambling her life to save his had been a ridiculously stupid thing to do, but it was also an act of bravery and loyalty that had further deepened the existing respect that Goro had for her by then. When he had later texted her and written that she should not bow her head to anyone not of a higher station, he had been trying to tell her that he considered her a woman of worth who was far more than the common thief that he had first looked down upon. He had wanted her to know that she should hold herself in high regard and not see herself as gutter trash. But there was also a buried warning in his message that even though she was without peer in his mind, there would be times when it would be necessary to show deference to those who were more powerful. She had not understood the meaning of his words, but perhaps she would one day—and if she still did not, he would explain them to her in time.

As his thoughts turned to what he had come to view as his master’s failures, he could feel his anger rising again. What Arasaka-sama had done had resulted in a loss of trust between them, and a bond built over decades that had shattered like a brittle blade was not so easily reforged once broken, even between a liege and his lord in a society where loyalty to one’s master was culturally ingrained. The hierarchical structure of the samurai clans that dated back to the feudal period of Japan had persisted across the centuries, as had the code and the traditions, even as clan had morphed into corporation and loyalty to the clan lord had been transferred to the corporate CEO. Under this neo-feudal system, Arasaka-sama owed Goro nothing, while he owed his lord everything. Things might have gone on as they always had under other circumstances, but the revelations about the Relic and Arasaka-sama’s plan for immortality had changed his perspective. Important aspects of Arasaka-sama’s secret project that Goro should have been made privy to in order to do his job had instead been kept from him. This he considered a hubristic error in judgment by Arasaka-sama that had nearly destroyed the entire corporation and had sent his life and V’s life spinning out of control. And worse than that, it had all stemmed from the original sin that was Arasaka-sama’s failure to punish Yorinobu after his first act of rebellion.

As he had grappled with the fact that the man whose judgment he had once considered absolutely infallible had proven himself to be all too human, his worldview had shifted in a foundational way. Yet he still served as Arasaka-sama’s personal bodyguard and killed unflinchingly when required to do so for one reason and one alone: he had been given oversight of the project to save V as a boon by his master. Even though he had been considering requesting his freedom, he could not break from Arasaka because of V’s situation and this so-called gift—which had been Arasaka-sama’s goal all along of course. His master never acted without an ulterior motive, and Arasaka-sama was well aware of Goro’s sense of personal responsibility for V’s predicament. To give V her life back, he had accepted Arasaka-sama’s gift and suppressed his internal conflict over his master’s actions with the same ruthless discipline he applied to all other aspects of his life.

The glass partitions separating the work areas reflected his image, and he took a quick look at himself in one as he neared the director’s office. He did not wish to present himself to V as the bedraggled mess he had been while on the run. Turning his head to each side, he was satisfied to see no loose strands of hair. He tugged on his coat and smoothed a wrinkle in his shirt out before adjusting the silver buckle on his black leather belt. Instead of the red silk binding he had previously worn, he had chosen this belt from his time as a fugitive in Night City. To Goro, it served as an important reminder of how easy it was to fall from heaven and sink back down into the filth that he had sacrificed so much to escape from in his youth.

As the door slid open, Dr. Kensington looked up in surprise and nearly spat out his danish and the coffee he had just been trying to wash it down with. He hastily stood up and bowed. “Y-you’re early, Takemura-san,” he managed to squeak out as he put on his glasses on to get a better look at his guest. He was one of the few employees who had opted out of modifying his eyes and also had as few implants as possible, largely because he knew what would happen if things ever went sideways with his employer. In Kensington’s opinion, it was better to be safe than sorry—and most people were pretty damned sorry when Arasaka decided to terminate their employment and their corporation-owned implants. Since his expertise on cybernetics was invaluable, Arasaka didn’t force the matter.

Goro checked his internal clock. “Our meeting was to be at 10:00 a.m. precisely, and it is 9:59 a.m.,” he said as he enunciated each word with his usual care and deliberation. “Would you like me to step outside and wait the remaining ten seconds? Is there something more important that you need to deal with, like your...breakfast?” His words were unfailingly polite as he motioned to the half-eaten pastry, and yet the threat was unmistakable. “Ah, it seems that your time has run out now, and we have much to discuss.”

Kensington gulped nervously and motioned to Takemura to take a seat across from his desk. “The engram...” The director trailed off as he noticed the bodyguard’s eyes narrow at the word and started over. “The...patient...?” He saw Takemura begin to scowl and promptly snapped his mouth shut.

Goro’s voice was low and sibilant as he said, “Her name is V, and you will address her as such—unless you wish for me to shove what remains of that disgusting pastry you were eating down your throat and pour your coffee into your nose.”

Kensington’s jaw dropped, and the thought that this was rapidly turning into the worst day of his life began running on a loop through his head. “申し訳ありません、竹村さん (Moushiwake arimasen, Takemura-san)!” he blurted out in Japanese, jumping to his feet and performing the deepest bow he could manage as he hoped with every fiber of his being that his apology showed enough sincerity and/or abject fear to appease the angry bodyguard.

Goro sighed. “No, _I_ apologize to you. My behavior has been intolerably rude today. We will start over, and you will give me your report on V.”

The director cleared his throat, mindful of the bodyguard’s mercurial temperament. “Yes, well, V is stable and the integrity of her engram has remained unchanged based on the last six months of data. There are no signs of decoherence in her pattern whatsoever.”

Goro nodded and asked, “And what about when she is awake? What has the psychologist assigned to her said about her state of mind?”

Kensington looked taken aback. “She...she hasn’t been awake since your last visit six months ago. There have been no new sessions since then.”

Goro began swearing under his breath and barked out, “V was to be given special privileges—this was ordered _five months_ ago before I departed to deal with the Militech conflict in Argentina at Arasaka-sama’s behest. I have just returned from there to find this out now?”

Kensington turned as white as a sheet. “There was a backlog, and the computational power required for her bi-weekly sessions would have taken away from the research to help her. I...I thought that was our greatest priority? To create a brain that can accommodate her unique engram?”

Goro pinched the bridge of his nose and said, “It _is_ important, but it does not supersede any of my personal directives relating to her well-being. Is that clear, Kensington-sensei? I do not wish to repeat myself again.”

Kensington hastily answered, “The situation will be remedied immediately, Takemura-san.”

“Good. And to make up for the time you have foolishly deprived her of, she will be given two hours every day for the entire week that I am here. Your research will wait,” Goro said, further prodding the meek little scientist to see how he would react when pushed to his limits. Part of his job was to test people, whether it was to determine their threat level or their utility, and depending on how Kensington handled himself, Goro would have to consider replacing him.

Kensington finally snapped and angrily said, “Takemura-san, I have a job to do here and research to conduct. If necessary, I will prioritize what is most urgent for this project. While I will keep your directives in mind and guarantee two hours per week at minimum per the original order from this point forward, I _cannot_ bend to your every demand no matter how many veiled threats you make.”

Goro nodded. “Very good. I have been wondering if you had any spine at all, and I am pleased to see that you do. I do not want a yes-man, I want an expert who will tell me the truth at all times. However, I was quite serious—she must be given two hours every day for the full week. After that, I will accept your recommendations.”

Kensington was left slightly flummoxed, as this day was not turning out anything like he had imagined it would. Deciding that he didn’t want to push his luck any further, he bowed and said, “Certainly, Takemura-san. That would be fair, considering the, ah, misunderstanding we had. Would you like to see her?”

Goro’s finger tapped an impatient rhythm on the arm of his chair as he said, “Yes, you will take me to her now. But first, you will disable all surveillance and recording. My conversations with V will remain private. Is that understood?”

Kensington typed a few commands out on his keyboard and said, “It’s done, and you’re all set, Takemura-san.”

Goro stood and adjusted his clothing again. “You have my thanks, but I must confirm it for myself. One moment please.” Kensington moved out of the way and allowed him take his place behind the desk. Goro quickly checked the surveillance system’s status and appeared satisfied that his will had been carried out. “Let us proceed, Kensington-sensei.”

Kensington opened the door and led the way to the projector room. V flickered to life as soon as the director entered the activation command. “I’ll leave you two alone,” he said, bowing once more before heading to his office as the ghost and the bodyguard stared at each other silently.

*

V appeared completely unchanged, right down to her half-shaved head and the shock of sapphire hair that fell to the right. Goro could even see the tattoos that wrapped around her shoulders and arms. The only signs that she was a hologram were the translucency of her image and the faint flickering around the edges of her form. V broke eye contact first, her eyes running over everything but him because if she were to keep staring at him right now, she might just start screaming and never stop.

“V, it is good to see you again,” Goro said cautiously, noticing her less than enthusiastic reaction. “I am glad that you look well.”

“How long?” she asked, closing her eyes.

Goro scanned the room for any bugs before answering, his eyes glowing crimson. While he trusted Dr. Kensington, he knew better than to blindly trust Arasaka to leave the room bug-free. Once he was satisfied and ended the scan, his eyes changed back to normal and he said, “Six months since my last visit. I apologize—before I left five months ago, they were instructed to give you at least two hours of wakefulness per week. Kensington-sensei informed me earlier that this was not done while I was away. Regrettably, he ignored my instructions in order to prioritize research that might help you, but we have since come to an understanding.”

V finally looked at Goro, her eyes boring into him. “Six _months?_ What the fuck, Takemura?”

She was using his surname—not a good sign since it indicated that she was angry. Goro knew her well enough after the time they had spent together to recognize her moods. “I can only apologize again for everything. And beg your forgiveness,” he said, bowing deeply.

“Johnny was right you know,” she said, pointing at walls around them. “Can’t trust ‘Saka scum— _ever_. Do you know what it’s been like for me? Because he was right about that, too—how you’re aware that you’re in this fucking purgatory but can’t sense the passage of time. I’m trapped here halfway between life and death, so tell me how you’re planning on fixing _that_ , Goro.”

She had reverted to using his first name—still angry, yes, but slightly less so despite her tone. Not wishing to upset her further and cognizant that a professional might be better equipped to deal with the emotional strain she was under, he said, “You are unhappy and understandably so. Perhaps I should call your psychologist in to—“

His words did not have their intended effect. Instead, they seemed to enrage V who slammed her fist at the screen, only to have the particles of light that gave her hand form disappear until she pulled it back. She angrily shouted, “Are you running away again, Takemura? Yeah, well, feel free to leave anytime—the door’s right there. After all, you left without giving me the slightest warning the last time, you fucking coward.” V had worked herself into a fury and wanted to throw something at him, but that was impossible, so she was forced to settle for crossing her arms and shooting a hate-filled look at him.

Her words and the hatred in her eyes had stung him deeply, and his pupils constricted in anger, causing the silver rings around his implants to blaze brightly. “You are acting like some くそがき (kusogaki) without knowing the full circumstances,” he said, briefly slipping into Japanese as his own frustration at the situation mounted. “I expected better of you, V. I am no coward, no liar. I...did...not...run,” he said, deliberately emphasizing each of the last four words. “And I am not running away now. I have stood watch over you for _two years!_ In that time, Arasaka-sama gave me the means to help you because he knew that he could use my guilt to bind me more closely to him—and I _let_ him do that for _your_ sake.”

After listening to him, her eyes softened, the hatred replaced with sympathy and a look of pity that he didn’t enjoy having directed at him. “I kept trying to tell you to free yourself from them—to not let them use you,” she said, sounding frustrated. “Fuck. Why didn’t you listen to me, you stubborn asshole?”

Goro was pacing now, his head swiveling back and forth because he was still agitated, but he paused to gape at her in disbelief and said, “Did I not just explain this? What I did _and_ what I chose not do has been for _your_ sake—I do not know how to make that any clearer.” He resumed his pacing, looking like he wanted to send his fist through the nearest wall. “Arasaka-sama saw that I was moving away from him, that I had lost faith. I may have been given oversight on this project, but I still have my other duties—that is why I was gone for so long. It was _not_ by choice.” He pointed at V and added, “You are not the only one who is in chains.”

V rubbed at her face with her hand, suddenly feeling shamed by what she had said to him. Her emotions were all over the place as she quietly said, “But you’re not the one living as a ghost at Arasaka’s mercy. They could shred me at any time for any reason—even with you in charge. I mean, just look at what Kensington did, Goro. Not everyone is going to obey your will or your orders. Do you have any idea what it is to live with the fear of being wiped out of existence always at the back of your mind in the few hours you’re given to be awake? You’re the only one I have here—”

She stopped speaking, and Goro read the pain in her eyes. His own anger dissipated, and he said, “It is difficult for both of us. You are a woman of great courage, but this situation would unman even the bravest warrior, so you are entitled to lash out. And I know that you are afraid, but you must believe that I would never lie to you.”

V turned away from him and said, “I do.”

“V, look at me, please.” Goro waited until she gave in and slowly faced him. “I have seen you in action, so I know your heart. When I said that you had taken the easy path with Mr. Welles, I thought that was all that you were capable of...but I was wrong—I underestimated you. In the time that we were together, I never once saw you run from the more difficult path. To get through this, I need for you to be as brave as I know you can be, V.”

She sighed and said, “I’m not sure that I can find that in myself anymore. It feels like I’ve lost some part of the person that I was after the biochip was removed.”

“No, you are still you. If you were not, you would not have dared to...what is the expression...’talk smack’ to me earlier. Only someone very brave or completely insane would do that—and you are not insane...so far.”

V laughed, slightly amazed that she could even feel like laughing under the circumstances. “Fuck, Goro. I can’t promise anything other than to try.”

“That is good enough for now. And I know that you do not wish to see your psychologist, but if you would speak to Maeda-sensei, it might help,” Goro said.

“Fine, send the headshrinker in, but _only_ for 30 minutes. You and I have more to talk about...if you’re still willing to talk,” she said.

“Certainly,” he said, raising a finger, “but I will need you to do one more thing—be a little more judicious in your anger, V. I had them turn surveillance and monitoring off to give us privacy, but there are still ears everywhere. You may curse me out as much as you like and in any manner you wish if it will make you feel better, but I would prefer not dealing with the ramifications of others hearing you railing against _‘Saka scum_ while the door is open. They are not as tolerant of you as I am.”

V rolled her eyes and flipped her middle finger at him. Goro gave her a disapproving look before sighing and very slowly flipping his own middle finger at her, which elicited a laugh from V. It was hard for him to believe that she could be such a child at times, particularly in such dire circumstances, but it was a part of who she was. And he found that he had missed it greatly over the last few months.

*

_Thirty Minutes Later_

Dr. Maeda walked into her office where Goro had been waiting patiently for her. She smiled at him, her eyes warm and friendly. In other words, she was an anomaly within Arasaka.

“How is her mental state?” Goro asked.

Taking her seat, Maeda said, “She’s doing as well as can be expected. To say that V has trust issues would be an understatement by the way. She avoided discussing anything of substance about her current state of mind, but she was more forthcoming about her past, Takemura-san.”

“Please enlighten me,” he said, folding his hands in his lap and leaning forward.

Maeda flicked through her datapad and brought up an image. Sliding it across the table to Goro, she let him take a look at it. “Let’s start with this man—Arthur Jenkins. She had quite a lot to say about him—mostly involving copious amounts of swearing and an expression of satisfaction upon being informed of his death. I assume that you’ve read V’s dossier.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “It is my job to know everything about everyone—including _you_. V is former Arasaka, and _he_ is the reason why.”

Maeda began counting on her fingers and said, “Arthur Jenkins. Arasaka. Dexter DeShawn. She was betrayed by her boss, by her former company, and by the fixer through whom she sought revenge against the company itself. Yet she trusts you implicitly even though you’re Arasaka-sama’s bodyguard and his right hand. Have you ever asked yourself why that is?”

Goro immediately became wary and kept his voice neutral as he said, “I saved V’s life, and she saved mine—it is very simple.”

Maeda motioned for Goro to return her datapad, and he shoved it at her with more force than was necessary. She looked closely at him and said, “Hmm, interesting. You seem irritated by that question.”

He narrowed his eyes at her and coldly said, _“I_ am not the one here for analysis. You should do your job, which is to tend to V’s mental health.”

“But I am doing my job,” Maeda shot back at him. “Humans can endure almost anything—so long as they have hope. You seem to be V’s primary source of hope, so I need to know if her faith in you is warranted.” Sensing that she had struck a nerve after seeing him scowl, she crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair.

“It is,” Goro said flatly. “My loyalty to her is not in doubt.”

Maeda gave him a piercing look. “Loyalty, and what else?”

“That is none of your business, Maeda-sensei. You tread on dangerous ground, and it would be wise to never ask me that again,” he said, trying to shut down her probing questions with an icy stare that would have scared off anyone else.

Maeda, however, was not the least bit intimidated by his posturing. “Fine, but my advice is that you should tell her how you feel. If I can see it, she can as well—unless she’s in as much denial as you are.”

“There is nothing to tell,” Goro insisted, ready to end this unwanted conversation. He started to get up but hesitated and then slumped back into the chair, wondering when he’d gotten so weak. All the violence and bloodletting over the years—none of it had ever weighed on him quite like the situation with V did. Killing was what he had been trained to do, and it was practically instinctive for him—something that he could do when called upon without thought or remorse. Dealing with juggling multiple competing interests, including his duties as a bodyguard and a soldier, all while trying to keep an eye on the project and constantly calculating how best to keep himself and V safe had been so much more taxing. It was far, far worse than any of the months-long campaigns he had been on. In battle he only had himself to worry about, but now he had someone else to worry about—and she was in the most vulnerable position imaginable.

Maeda could see Takemura’s exhaustion written on his face as his mask slipped for a moment before he managed to fix it back into place, and she watched him studying her carefully as if he were trying to decide whether or not he could trust her to keep his secrets. “Takemura-san, whatever you tell me is confidential. I know what all the legalese is and what our real policies are, but you must be able to see that I take my oath as seriously as you take yours.” It was the right appeal to make to Takemura, because he decided to let his guard down after mulling her words over for a few minutes.

Goro steepled his fingers and finally said, “Let us say that there are... _feelings_ involved. What would you have me do? Confess them to her like some pathetic schoolboy experiencing his first crush? She is not my 初恋 (hatsukoi), and we are not besotted young teenagers clumsily fumbling in the dark. Whatever _might_ exist between us...it would be a source of danger if it were out in the open. My master has me on a leash already, and I do not wish to give him further reason to question my loyalties or give him even more leverage over me.” Goro lifted his chin and gave her a defiant look.

“I understand your concerns, but didn’t they finish interrogating V at the end of the first year? It seems like a safe assumption that they’re not going to be doing any additional deep scans or asking questions about her personal life anytime soon.” Maeda selected two small ceramic cups and poured out some of the tea that she’d had steeping. She handed Takemura a cup, which he sipped from gratefully.

Goro held the cup for warmth for a minute and waited until his rattled nerves had steadied again before taking another sip. Giving her another appraising look, he said, “You are sly like a nine-tailed fox. That is _not_ a compliment.”

Maeda’s eyes twinkled and said, “But I _am_ a highly impertinent American四世 (yonsei), so I choose to take it as one.”

“You are a strange woman—stranger than even V perhaps. But I thank you,” he said, getting up and bowing to her after finishing his tea. “I will think on your words.” His eyes flashed blue for several seconds. “My contact information—if you are ever in need of assistance or if there is anything significant to report on V, you may call me, Maeda-sensei.”

Maeda smiled at Takemura as he left. A complicated man in a precarious situation—she certainly didn’t envy him at all. Turning on her computer, she began transferring her notes after some careful editing to omit anything revealing about her assessment of V’s and Takemura’s emotional attachment to each other. Knowing Arasaka from the inside like they all did, well, she couldn’t say that he was entirely wrong to be so circumspect.

*

_Fifteen Minutes Later_

Goro steeled himself for another potential outburst as he walked across the threshold to the projector room, but he found V sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed in what appeared to be meditation. She cracked one eye open upon hearing his footsteps and cocked her head at him. “Running late, huh? Did she try to shrink your head, too?”

“Mph, that woman is very...persistent,” Goro said without elaborating further. “So what do you wish to talk about?”

“I looked up Kagawa on the air-gapped system Kensington had brought in—guess he was trying to make up for what happened. Anyhow, still planning on taking me out to show me what real food is like? Best udon restaurants in Japan—or so they say.”

“Ah, you remembered,” Goro said, nodding. “Yes, udon is one of the dishes that Kagawa is known for,” he added blandly.

“Aaaaaand...you didn’t answer my question, Goro. Kind of a gonk move to deflect like that,” she said, trying not to let her anxiety over his non-answer show.

“To answer you then: No, I do not have such plans any longer,” he said.

Her heart dropped. Even without a physical body, the memory of its sensations and reactions existed. There was disappointment in her voice as she said, “I guess I deserve that.”

“You misunderstand, V. I have decided that I should take you to Heian-kyō instead,” he said using the ancient name for Kyōto. “I would show you the beauty of my home in its fullest flower, not just its cuisine. The cherry blossoms along the riverbanks of the Kamogawa showering their pink petals down in spring, Kinkakuji’s golden radiance as dawn’s first light strikes it—these things and more I would have you experience.”

As what he had just told her ran through her head, V tried to cover her true feelings with sarcasm. “So what you’re saying is that I should be a complete bitch more often?”

Goro sighed. His delivery was as sarcastic as her own as he said, “That is definitely _not_ what I was saying. My English is impeccable, but _you_ seem to have great difficulty understanding your own barbarian tongue. Perhaps it is brain damage from the Relic?”

V grinned, her phantom heart starting to beat a little faster. “There’s the Goro that I’ve missed—giving as good as you get.”

“I could start teaching you my language if you are to visit in the future,” he suddenly suggested. “But it is presumptuous of me to assume that you have any interest.”

“No, it’s not presumptuous,” she replied before giving him a chance to reconsider his offer. “I may have been an Arasaka corpo, but I relied on my translator ware. I only learned the basics of honorifics so that I wouldn’t accidentally offend the Tōkyō execs. And how to bow.”

“Very well. I will have Kensington-sensei add the appropriate materials to the system you mentioned. Hmm, what should I start with? Something simple like the word 心 (kokoro),” Goro said, turning before he drew the four strokes for the character in the air with his index finger so that she could see the proper order.

Imitating him somewhat awkwardly, she traced the character in front of her and asked, “What does it mean?”

“It means heart or spirit. There are two readings for 漢字 (kanji) characters, one of which is the 音読み (on-yomi) or Chinese reading that represents the sound; in this context, it would be pronounced「しん」 (shin). The 訓読み (kun-yomi) is the Japanese reading, which is 「こころ」(kokoro) as I just said.”

“This is already a _lot_ more complicated than my barbarian tongue. Jesus, how do you even remember any of this?” V let the character roll around in her head and repeated the Japanese reading out loud several times.

Goro smirked—actually smirked—at her pronunciation and said, “We have not even gotten into the two syllabaries of ひらがな (hiragana) and カタカナ (katakana). Or,” he paused dramatically, “the fact that there are approximately 2100 漢字 (kanji) to learn to become fluent in reading and writing.”

V winced and muttered, “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that I have an eternity in a black box on my hands right now.”

“Should I give you an example in a sentence?” he mused, scratching at his beard. “There is something that I should tell you according to Maeda-sensei, so I will say it in my own way. I will only say this once to you in my language, so listen well: 俺の心に成っていた (Ore no kokoro ni natte ita).” The words flowed fluidly from his lips, his voice low, raspy, and filled with an emotion that she hadn’t yet heard from him. At the end, he looked like a man who had just damned himself to hell but was somehow relieved that it was over and done with.

V only recognized the one word that he’d taught her. “You know that I don’t understand any of that, right?”

“Then I will make an exception and say it in your language once as well. Although the subject is dropped in the sentence, it is implied—very common in Japanese,” he said pedantically.

“Remember what I said about deflecting, Goro? It applies to delaying, too,” V said in a warning tone.

“Valerie,” he said, using her name for the first time even though he had known it well before their inauspicious encounter at the landfill, “I just told you that you have become my heart. I assume that my meaning is clear, because I will not say it again in either language—not within these walls.”

Goro has been so matter-of-fact about it, almost as if he’d been explaining the fundamental laws of motion to her instead of telling her that he loved her in his characteristically elliptical and maddening fashion, that she wasn’t entirely sure that she’d heard him right. She tilted her head at him and slowly ventured, “You’re saying—”

“—that across this sea that lies between us, I wait for you,” he said, finishing her sentence as he placed his hand on the glass that separated them for emphasis.

V reached out to Goro, stopping at the limits of the holoprojector and letting her hand drop because what she most desperately wanted in this moment wasn’t possible. “In another life, you might have been a poet,” she said, her voice shaking slightly.

“But we only have this one life, and we are as fate shapes us,” Goro said, removing his hand from the glass. “And if that other life meant never meeting you, I would choose this life and the slums of Chiba-11 again to reach you, Valerie.”

“You should know that I only let people that I care about call me by that name. Since I’m no poet in this life or any other, all I can do is give you permission to use it,” she said, obliquely admitting to her own feelings for him.

His silver eyes glinted in the low light of the room, and he nodded at her. “I am sorry that we cannot continue our... _lesson_ today, but my meeting with Arasaka-sama is very soon. I must deliver the after-action report on Argentina,” he said apologetically.

“So tomorrow?” V asked.

“Yes, tomorrow. My day is free, so perhaps another lesson would be in order,” Goro said. As he walked out of the room, he stopped for a moment and added, “Be well, Valerie—I will count the hours until then.”

The door slid shut, and V was alone again. But she took comfort in knowing that she had never really been entirely alone for the past two years and that there was a light in the seemingly unending darkness that would always guide her home.


	2. 月の光で彼を見 た (Tsuki no Hikari de Kare wo Mita)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Goro has a restless night, an opportunity presents itself to V by daylight as she considers taking a step that could lead her out of Mikoshi that much sooner.
> 
> And since I’m an occasionally unreliable narrator like Johnny, rejoice, because there’s a slight amount of smut as of now. :P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here are all the Japanese terms translated (in the future, maybe I need someone to convince me to stop doing quite so much work :P ).
> 
> 1) 月の光で彼を見た (Tsuki no Hikari de Kare wo Mita) = By the Light of the Moon, I Saw Him  
> * The chapter title was named on the basis of the opening section. You could also go with “I Saw Him by the Light of the Moon”—either version works really.
> 
> 2) 模様 (moyou) = pattern
> 
> 3) 化け猫 (bakeneko) = ghost cat  
> * Already explained in the game! But yeah, it’s a cat spirit/ghost cat.
> 
> 4) 坪庭 (tsuboniwa) = small courtyard garden/inner garden
> 
> 5) 一 (ichi), 二 (ni), 三 (san), 四 (shi), 五 (go), 六 (roku), 七 (shichi), 八 (hachi), 九 (kyuu), 十 (juu)  
> * Going from left to right, it’s literally just counting from one to ten using the basic numbers (does not include alternate readings like “yon” or “nana” FYI).
> 
> 6) 発音 (hatsuon) = pronunciation
> 
> 7) あそこへ行きま (Asoko e ikimasu) = I will go there (to that place far from the both of us).  
> * Depending on if you went koko/soko/asoko, it would be that place here/that place away from me/that place far from me and you.
> 
> 8) あそにいれて (asoko ni irete) = stick it in down there/shove your cock into...  
> * Talk about awkward definitions/translations to have to write. In sexual terms, “asoko” refers to a cunt/pussy. The subject isn’t mentioned, but duh, a woman saying this is telling a guy to dick her, so...yeah. Anyway, I had the opportunity to make a pun and write a funny scene using the same word in an entirely different context, so I went for it, for which I do not even remotely apologize. Also, tormenting Goro is fun.
> 
> 9) 俺を殺したいんですか?! (Ore wo koroshitain desu ka  
> ?!) = Do you want to kill me?!  
> * Haha, self-explanatory isn’t it? Anyway, the “-n desu” part indicates greater emphasis, like you REALLY want to do the specific verb action. EDIT: Minor hiragana correction after belatedly noticing I had 「て」instead of 「で」. To be fair here, I’m usually writing very late at night and am probably lucky that I’m not dropping my iPad on my face or making way more typos in English and/or Japanese—lol.
> 
> 10) 仕方がない (Shikata ga nai) = It can’t be helped.  
> * A phrase used to express resignation to a situation that is out of your hands that you feel you can’t do anything about basically.

Chapter 2

月の光で彼を見 た

(Tsuki no Hikari de Kare wo Mita)

_Bradbury Tower_

_Night City_

_2079_

_Day Two—12:30 a.m._

Goro’s hair was loose and free from its customary topknot, flowing around his shoulders like water as he lay in bed. He was naked beneath the sheet tangled around his waist and legs, and his arms were crossed behind his neck. The intricate metal throat guard that ran down to his chest and his cabled neck were the two most obvious modifications that were visible when he was clothed, but from his shoulders to his forearms, his former implants had recently been replaced with new ones that were the same glossy black as lacquerware. The artificial musculature matched seamlessly with his organic flesh, so it looked as if he had two shoulder sleeves tattooed onto himself instead of cybernetics. The black backgrounds created negative space, while the iridescent mother-of-pearl inlays formed sprays of cherry blossoms that wound around his arms and spread out across his upper back, and his legs had been similarly treated and bore the same 模様 (moyou). The new shoulder sleeves and leg sleeves effectively formed a suit of armor that protected a number of vital areas and points of vulnerability such as his femoral arteries.

Neural grafting coupled with the artificial nerves in his modified limbs provided him with full sensation in the non-organic areas of his body, not out of any altruism or decency on the part of the corporation but because feeling sensations like pain and being able to sense hot and cold were both necessary to prevent accidental physical damage and to assess any damage that might occur. The upgrade had been something of a luxury and fairly expensive, but after the last few months of shit that he had been through, it was something that he felt entitled to. He was not a particularly vain man, but he had a great appreciation for artistry— _and_ well-tailored clothes of course.

Restless and unable to sleep because he was thinking about his conversation with V the previous day at Arasaka Tower, Goro had turned the radio to the jazz station and was trying to lose himself within the music. Miles Davis was blasting his horn in what seemed like a ragged and dissonant scream, and the syncopated beat that lay beneath the song pulsed frenetically. To others jazz seemed like an incomprehensible and alien cacophony, but that was not the case for him. Contained in the music’s notes and phrasing was same kind of controlled storm that he recognized within his own soul. But the music was no balm tonight, and he looked up through the skylight at the full moon floating overhead. It bathed him in its soft glow, his own eyes like twin versions of the moon that reflected its own silvery light back up at it in the darkness.

This penthouse in City Center was another reward for his service, but it was no two-edged sword like the project to restore V to life was. Although Arasaka-sama’s death would normally have been the kind of disgrace from which no man could emerge unscathed, Goro had done so by virtue of his and V’s actions. After aligning with Hanako-sama, they had been the ones to end Yorinobu’s insurrection, and it was they who had given Arasaka-sama a path back to life by not killing the rebellious son whose body he needed for his own resurrection. Goro disentangled himself from the sheet and got up, wrapping a towel around his waist. He gave V’s 化け猫 (bakeneko) a gentle scratch behind its ears, the cat purring briefly but remaining asleep in its own bed. He knew the creature’s name, but he couldn’t bring himself to call it _Mr. Nibbles_ —it was far too undignified, and he simply refused to ever utter such a ridiculous name. Still, he had unofficially adopted the cat, feeling obligated to take care of it because V could not. Whenever he wasn’t in Night City, he had the housekeeper tend to it—and unlike the good Dr. Kensington, _she_ had followed his directions from the start.

Making his way to the liquor cabinet, he poured himself a glass of whiskey before heading to the 坪庭 (tsuboniwa) at the heart of his apartment. The courtyard garden had a small maple with bright crimson leaves that formed the garden’s focal point. The garden also included features like the large ceramic urn burbling with water that sat on a sharply angled slab of black granite surrounded by green moss, a touch of the modern melded with the otherwise traditional garden. Goro sat at the garden’s edge and swirled his glass, taking a sip of the amber liquid and savoring it as the taste of peat and smoke burned its way across his tongue and down his throat. Feeling somewhat calmer, he swallowed the rest of the whiskey and wondered if he should make another doomed effort at sleeping or take a shower followed by a soak in the tub instead since he had not had a chance to do so earlier after his meeting with Arasaka-sama ran late. Bathing would at least let him relax a little, so he mentally flipped a coin to decide.

*

The bathroom had a large shower and an extravagant soaking tub, which Goro had a greater appreciation for than most as someone from Chiba-11. As a child, he could never have dreamed of such luxuries when he had had to wash his clothes in the chemical-tainted river that ran through the district. Setting the exact temperature that he wanted, he ran the water in the shower until steam billowed out of the glass enclosure and dropped his towel. For a few moments, he just stood beneath the almost scalding water and let it wash over him, enjoying the heat. Reluctantly, he stepped out briefly to grab a washcloth from the nearby hanger and quickly got back in, squirting some bath gel that smelled faintly of cedar and pine onto it.

He worked the cloth over his chest, sighing with pleasure as the lather covered his skin. Continuing down to his stomach, he winced slightly as the half-healed sword wound on his right side ached. Goro used to have more extensive modifications as a soldier that covered a larger area of his torso, but as a bodyguard, he wanted more mobility and agility and had gotten rid of much of it. This meant that even with his new sleeves there were certain vulnerabilities when he was tasked for special combat assignments. But he was rarely called upon for such things now, and Arasaka-sama only assigned him such work if a conflict was serious enough to require his leadership and skills on the battlefield. As with all the battles that he walked away from alive, he had reviewed his performance and learned from his errors. His opponent would have no such opportunity to do so, however, because the Militech general’s head had swiftly been detached from his body after he had landed his blow on Goro.

The pain of the wound had distracted him from thinking about V, but as his hand neared his groin, both his mind and body betrayed him. Goro cursed under his breath as the thoughts of being with her that he had walled off for so long flooded into his mind, leaving his cock twitching and rapidly growing hard. As a man who was incredibly self-possessed and disciplined, he didn’t like it when he wasn’t in complete control of his body or his emotions—and he wasn’t entirely in control at the moment. Though it would have been a lie to say that he had not felt hints of attraction long before the dynamics of his relationship with V had changed, he had been able to control his impulses. Under no circumstances would he have ever acted on any feelings while the two of them were fighting to clear their names and V had been so desperately ill—he simply was not one to take advantage of a woman in such a situation.

But now that the contours and borders of what lay between the two of them had so drastically been altered, Goro couldn’t help but be preoccupied with the fact that they were unable to so much as touch so long as she was in Mikoshi. Although he would wait however long it would take for her ghost to return to him in this world, he was only human and selfishly desired her in the here and now. Dropping the cloth, he gave in to the inevitable and took himself in his right hand, which he began to slide almost unwillingly up and down the length of his shaft. He hissed and started cursing in Japanese as he paused and allowed his thumb to slowly circle the tip of his cock. As he braced himself against the wall with his left hand, he turned his head to the side.

Now that the temperature had equalized, Goro could see the full-length mirror through a patch of glass that had cleared as the droplets of condensation that had formed began to roll down its surface. He let out a low growl as he thought about binding V’s wrists with his red silk belt and fucking her from behind while they were in front of the mirror so that he could watch her every reaction in it and learn what pleased her best—and also so that she could enjoy watching him fucking her. As he gave his cock long, even strokes and slowed his rhythm to draw things out, he thought about biting her on her shoulder and kissing and sucking at her neck to mark her as his, shuddering at the idea of finally possessing every part of her, not just her heart.

Imagining the sound of their flesh smacking together and the delicious wet, sucking sound her cunt would make as he slowly thrust himself in and out of her, his hand moved faster, twisting at the head of his shaft. The moans and cries he would draw out of her would be... _exquisite_. And after he had sated himself, he would lift her up on his shoulders and eat her cunt out, tasting their mixed juices on his lips. His past partners had generally been appreciative of his athleticism and skill—and on those few occasions when they had been dissatisfied, he had made a point of learning what they wanted until they begged him for his touch. He vowed to himself that he would have her doing the same if it killed him.

Goro bowed his head, his breathing ragged as his hips bucked into his hand. Feeling his orgasm nearing, he picked up speed, now imagining V’s full lips pressed to his cock before taking him into her mouth. A low moan escaped from him as he finally came, the muscles in his stomach spasminghard as he ejaculated on himself. The water washed the white ribbons of semen away as he gasped and his ragged breathing slowed. Grabbing his washcloth once the lingering contractions stopped, he lathered up again and finished showering without further distraction. The bath that he had planned on would no longer be necessary judging by the lassitude spreading through his limbs.

*

_Arasaka Tower_

_Night City_

_2079_

_Day Two—10:30 a.m._

Every time the shutdown happened, it was akin to being trapped beneath the surface of a frozen lake, leaving her slowly suffocating and frantically beating against the underside of the ice as she tried to break through to the surface—but like she’d said to Goro, she never completely lost consciousness. As a result, every time that V was summoned from Mikoshi, the first thing she did was gasp for breath before opening her eyes, just as she was doing right now. It wasn’t exactly the best way to start a day, but she always reminded herself that Johnny had essentially spent fifty years forever drowning. He might be gone now, but she still had the memories of his life and his imprisonment in Mikoshi.

“V?” a familiar voice asked.

“Hey there, Doc,” she said to Dr. Kensington. “And what brings you here today—aside from not wanting to piss Goro off again?”

“Ah, heh,” Kensington said nervously, adjusting his glasses that were somehow always tilting either slightly to the left or to the right since keeping them on completely straight seemed to be an impossibility for him. “Yes, well, I was loading today’s shard into the server for you with the morning news update and the requested reading materials. That’s not why I’m talking to you, though.”

“Mhmm, then you should get to your point,” V said. “I’m on the clock, and you’re wasting my time.”

Kensington sighed, feeling like it was his current lot in life to be apologizing to someone every few minutes lately. “Look, I made a mistake and I’m sorry—genuinely sorry, and not because of Takemura-san. I wanted to discuss a rumor about Kang Tao.”

That piqued her interest. “Hellman tried to defect to them after Yorinobu’s stunt fucked all of us over. What is it? They tryna bag you now or something?”

 _“What?!”_ Kensington spluttered, shocked by the suggestion and very glad that he had decided to turn off the monitoring and surveillance before coming in. Since Takemura was scheduled to meet with V in about 15 minutes, he had timed this conversation very carefully due to the delicate nature of what he was about to say. “No, absolutely not! I have my unofficial contacts and lines of communication with researchers in my field at some of the other corps, and there’s been chatter about Kang Tao moving forward with their own version of Relic 2.0—one that can supposedly work even with a brain that only has 60-70% compatibility with the implanted engram. I must make it clear that you don’t meet that threshold because of the Silverhand engram’s effects, so it would not be an instant solution. However, it would advance my research into creating regenerative and adaptive neural pathways in an artificial brain that could eventually support your engram, possibly restoring you to your own body since we still have it in suspension.

“If that’s true, then I’m impressed that they pulled it off independently, given how the Hellman thing blew up in their faces courtesy of little old me. They must have had someone of Hellman’s caliber that you don’t know about working on roughly parallel research—that, or Arasaka has more leakers with access to Relic 1.0 and 2.0 research than you can track.” She dryly added, “Such a pity that I’m not still in Arasaka counterintel, isn’t it? Or I could be helping out with that right now. In any case, I hate to disappoint you, but I’m currently in no condition to klep prototypes, kidnap scientists, or put my netrunning skills to use.”

Kensington nodded and said, “Yes, but you do have someone who _can_ act on your behalf. The question is whether or not we—you, really—should even bring this up to him. Rumors are, after all, just rumors. I don’t know how solid this is—it could be the case that Kang Tao is bluffing and trying to attract investors or who knows what. If you think Arasaka’s internal politics are byzantine, they’re even worse from what I've heard.”

V laughed and incredulously asked, “So you’re asking _me_ if we should bring this up with Goro? He’s no netrunner or fixer, in case you somehow missed who he works for.”

“True, but you have contacts with those kinds of people, while _he_ has the discretionary funding,” Kensington said, plucking nervously at his lab coat. “And he can talk to them.”

“Here’s the thing, Ben. Can I call you Ben?” she asked, not waiting for him to answer. “He’s Arasaka, and the people I know would shoot him on sight—or they’d _try_ to shoot him, and then he’d hand their asses to them. I don’t want my remaining friends zeroed because they made him angry.”

“Risk versus reward—how many more years do you want to spend in Mikoshi while we try to get you out of there?” Kensington asked.

V could see the wheels in his head turning and said, “Ben, this isn’t just for me, now is it? It seems as if you keep forgetting that I was a corpo like you and that I can still think like you. You believe that if you pull this scheme off, it’ll raise your stock with Arasaka. And you think that I’m just some dumb merc that you can manipulate.”

“I never thought of you as stupid—only as colossally unlucky and naive for having trusted the wrong people after hearing your story. Look, I openly admit that I could land a promotion and raise my standing, but what helps me would also help you in terms of making things easier for Takemura-san politically. He is in a very unique position as the de facto right hand of the emperor despite _technically_ only being a bodyguard, and even if Arasaka-sama has an obligation to him and to you to a more limited extent, Arasaka-sama’s will could change at any time for any reason. Not even his own son was safe from him.” Kensington plucked at his coat again and then willed himself to stop, realizing that he was engaging in his nervous tic again.

“You sound a little too much like Jenkins right now, Ben,” V muttered. However, she was definitely giving the idea some consideration. _It’s not a completely stupid idea. Scratch that—it’s extremely stupid, just not quite as stupid as the Relic heist,_ she thought.

Kensington said, “All I ask is that you think it over and discuss it with Takemura-san if you decide that you want to pursue this lead. The research will continue even if you choose not to do anything.”

The scientist gave her a slight bow and checked his watch before leaving, determining that his timing was excellent, because he had about five minutes to spare before Takemura showed up.

*

_10:45 a.m._

Goro walked into the holoprojector room, seeing that the space had been reconfigured with a desk and chair for any human occupants who might be spending an extended period of time in the room. The air-gapped server sitting under it was connected solely to the projector and the monitor and keyboard on the desk. This system was accessible only by an active engram or a human user within the room, which prevented hacking into Arasaka’s network by outside netrunners. Although a real-time connection to the Net would never be allowed, the setup did allow for large amounts of searchable information and existing databases deemed harmless to be accessed offline, along with whatever updates were desired via shards. Mikoshi wasn’t physically present, but the access point and its direct link effectively made it so. Ergo, keeping it secure was imperative.

On the desk was a pot of tea and a handwritten note from Dr. Maeda reading:

_I’m sure that you can use this more than I can right now._

_—M_

_Probably—no, definitely,_ he thought. After the night he had had, it would certainly help. Although he had finally gotten a few hours of sleep, he would not say that he was particularly well rested. He went ahead and did what he now expected would be his customary scan for bugs. Having found none, he poured out a cup of tea for himself.

V called out to him and said, “Hey, Goro.”

“Valerie,” he replied in a low, silky tone, his eyes displaying a wolfish hunger as he turned his silver gaze on her.

If a man could have fucked her with his eyes and voice alone, Goro was currently succeeding at it. The intensity of his eyes and the way he had said her name were both making V feel a growing heat between her legs—which she found entirely preferable to the desolation of Mikoshi. Her lips parted slightly before she managed to press them closed, but Goro had noticed and raised an eyebrow at her, the shadow of a self-satisfied smile on his lips upon seeing her reaction.

V shook her head and reminded herself that they had something serious to discuss, but before she could think of a good way to bring up the Kang Tao rumor, Goro asked, “And how are your studies progressing? You did not have much time left when I departed, I know. But I am curious to see how quickly you are able to learn.”

He had gone straight from sounding like they were in the bedroom to sounding professorial within the span of a few seconds, leaving her both aching and disappointed. She stifled a sigh and said, “I have the first ten numbers down and even the phrase ‘I will go here/there/that place far away from both of us.’”

“Then recite the numbers for me first,” he said, listening intently.

“一 (ichi), 二 (ni), 三 (san), 四 (shi), 五 (go), 六 (roku), 七 (shichi), 八 (hachi), 九 (kyuu), 十 (juu),” she said,counting them off in order.

“Not entirely bad, but your 発音 (hatsuon) is very...American in a few places,” he said, tsking at the end. “We will work on this, but try one of the sentence that you say you think you learned—any version is fine.”

V chose the third version and said, “あそこへ行きま (Asoko e ikimasu).”

“Much better—I see some hope that with proper instruction you _might_ stop sounding like an uncultured barbarian,” he teased.

V smiled deceptively sweetly at Goro, deciding that it was now time for a little revenge—after which she swore to herself that she would bring the topic of Kang Tao up. Waiting until Goro was drinking the tea that he had left sitting untouched while getting a feel for her linguistic capabilities, she suddenly asked, “Say, could you tell me what「あそにいれて」(Asoko ni irete) means?”

Predictably, Goro immediately swallowed his tea the wrong way and started choking and coughing. When he finally managed to recover, he wheezed out in Japanese, “俺を殺したいんですか (Ore wo koroshitain desu ka)?!”

“What was that, Goro? It’s a little too advanced for the uncultured barbarian,” she said smugly with her arms crossed.

“Are you...are you trying to kill me?!” he asked in a strangled voice while glaring at her, his eyes flashing brightly. “Do you know what you just said, Valerie?”

“That I want you to shove your cock into my pussy? Yes, I do know—I decided to look up a little slang and a few other things before the clock ran out on me yesterday,” she said, grinning triumphantly over having successfully shredded his composure.

“ _You_ are the worst kind of thief—one who steals a man’s heart and his dignity,” Goro said, crossing his arms and turning away from her briefly before shooting a look at her that could have melted through steel.

“Goro...are you... _sulking?”_ V asked while trying not to laugh at the expression on his face. “I thought you’d be flattered at the very least to know that...” she trailed off, nodding at the bulge between his legs.

He grunted and raised an eyebrow at her after realizing what she was nodding at. “Stop that! And I am not sulking,” he said, sounding annoyed.

“You are!” she exclaimed, now enjoying this exchange even more because it was just like it had been in the beginning, with their sometimes contentious texts and verbal jousting.

“I am not,” Goro said sternly.

V shot back, “Oh, you _definitely_ are.”

“I...am... _not!”_ He was practically shouting at her, which only made V break into outright laughter.

“You _are._ And considering how you made me feel like you were fucking me after you showed up this morning—and I _know_ that you noticed what you were doing to me—I think I’m entitled to look at whatever I want,” she said smugly, confident that her logic was unassailable.

Goro glared at her for a moment but then sighed. “Perhaps you are right, Valerie. But my...indiscreet behavior today...it does not mean that we should be doing... _this_...here,” he said, waving his hand vaguely between them.

“Little late for that, isn’t it?” she asked. “I mean, considering yesterday, it’s not like we can ever go back.”

Shaking his head, he was resigned as he said, “仕方がない (Shikata ga nai). No, we cannot go back—nor do I wish to if that has not been made abundantly clear. But I have already explained that we _should_ remain cautious and be very careful.”

“That only works if you can restrain yourself, and _you_ seem to be the one who’s having trouble with that at the moment. How long have you been thinking about me like this?” she asked, curious as to why he seemed so flustered.

Goro rolled his eyes and cursed inwardly over picking up her bad habits. “Most recently? Since last night,” he muttered, giving in and answering her. If V was determined to throw caution to the wind despite his warnings, he knew by now that he would not be able to stop her from doing as she willed. And he was starting to think that Dr. Maeda had been right—the likelihood of anyone discovering anything about their relationship was relatively low. _As long as it never goes outside these walls...why not?_ he thought, granting himself permission to do what he wanted to do.

Giving him a knowing look, she said, “That explains a lot about this morning, but I meant the first time ever.”

“Determined to take the last of my pride from me, I see. You are the most insufferable woman I have ever met—truly,” Goro said sulkily. “But if you must really know...Oda.”

“Sorry, what?” V was puzzled by how his protégé fit into this.

Goro flexed the joints of his fingers, the metal in them faintly clicking. “When we met with Oda by the waterside, you reminded him of his obligation to Hanako-sama and to the truth. It was then that I first saw the person you were before your life as a mercenary, and this intrigued me. I have always found mystery to be a more appealing trait than others in women, so I suppose you can thank the fact that I found you something of an enigma,” he said with a faint smile. “And since we are asking completely irrelevant and embarrassing questions, you should reciprocate, no?”

It was V’s turn to be embarrassed—strange how teasing him about sex didn’t result in an ounce of shame but that talking about her emotions brought out a certain reticence. “The rooftop at the construction site. We argued, but you told me about your childhood...I suppose it showed me that there was another side to you as well that I found equally intriguing,” she quietly said, being fully honest. But she was reluctant to leave things on such a serious note and broke into a mischievous grin. “You want to know what else did it for me? Your eyes. And the pizza didn’t hurt either.”

Goro seemed amused by that and smirked while pointing at his eyes. “I have never needed these implants to get a woman into bed.” Then he pointed at V and added, “I am even told that my voice is more than enough to accomplish that by a certain thief with the most terrible taste in food.”

Although V could have spent days doing this with Goro, she said, “Maybe you should drink some more tea, because I have something important to tell you.” She proceeded to lay out what Dr. Kensington had said about the Kang Tao rumor in detail.

Goro got up and started pacing. “You did not think to lead with this?” he asked, rubbing at his forehead and sounding slightly pained.

V said, “Well, you’re the one who decided to ask me about what I’d learned while I was still thinking about a way to bring this up to you! And then things spiraled out of control after you had to call me a barbarian— _again_ —so we’re both to blame, okay? Anyhow, what do you think?”

“What do I think?” He stopped pacing and narrowed his eyes. “I think I will have another conversation with the so-called queen of the fixers tomorrow—and this time she will not deny me. We will find out if this is a real opportunity or not and go from there.”


	3. また 黄泉の国から蘇っている (Mata Yominokuni kara Yomigaette Iru)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goro returns to the Afterlife for a rematch with Rogue in an effort to get more information about the Kang Tao rumor and gets to act a bit more like the badass that he is. He also meets an old friend to see if he's willing to help in future endeavors. Also, more V and Goro - it's sort of a given, isn't it? :P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ironically, there's even more Japanese this time despite the fact that I had intended to dial it down a bit. Unfortunately, introducing Oda into things meant a change of plans (I'm all about verisimilitude, and not having him and Goro speaking in Japanese would have been odd). Everything is translated within the story itself, but if you want individual definitions of specific words (as many as I could fit anyway), then jump to the endnotes. Up here, I'm explaining the chapter title, along with a few notes.
> 
> 1) また 黄泉の国から蘇っていて (Mata Yominokuni kara Yomigaette Ite) = I Am Arisen Again from the Afterlife  
> It's A) a bit of wordplay because of the excursion to the Afterlife in this chapter, B) refers to V more or less effectively being resurrected from the afterlife on a daily basis (for now at least), C) refers to Izanagi and Izanami's story, and D) loosely applies to Goro getting the upper hand this time around at the Afterlife - unlike on his last visit with Rogue (we all know how his last meeting with Rogue worked out in the game :P ).
> 
> 1a) また (mata) = again
> 
> 1b) 黄泉の国 (Yominokuni) = afterlife or underworld
> 
> 1c) から (kara) = from
> 
> 1d) 蘇っている (yomigaette iru) = being restored, resurrected, reborn, revived, etc.  
> The actual root verb is "yomigaeru" while the "iru" combined with the -te form of "yomigaeru" means in the present. I guess you can think of it like a gerund in English with an -ing...more or less. At least, that's the easiest way I can think of to put it. As used here, I'm using it in the sense of arising from.
> 
> 2) 伊奘諾 (Izanagi) = male creator god of Japanese mythology (husband of Izanami)
> 
> 3) 伊奘冉 (Izanami) = the female creator god of Japanese mythology (wife of Izanagi)  
> The story is laid out in the first page or so, so I guess you'll see why they're mentioned pretty soon. And if you're wondering why it's the kanji in parentheses at the beginning, I did that because V speaks English and she doesn't actually know the kanji for the names.
> 
> I will say one thing about the conversation between Goro and Oda at the very end: It starts out with the polite desu/masu merely because I felt that the first question was sort of formal. After that's out of the way, they basically go casual for the rest of the conversation - not that anyone is going to care about this unless they speak Japanese. Oh, and while teaching V, Goro does use polite desu/masu (there's no need to be confusing V with polite vs. casual forms - or give myself more headaches than I already have, haha).

Chapter 3

また 黄泉の国から蘇っている

(Mata Yominokuni kara Yomigaette Iru)

_Arasaka Tower_

_Night City_

_2079_

_Day Three—10:00 a.m._

Another death, another day, another rebirth—it was starting to seem almost routine for V, but she reminded herself that this schedule would last only for the remainder of the week while Goro was here, barring any negotiations between Goro and Dr. Kensington. Knowing that she would be in Mikoshi for longer periods of time reminded her again of how Johnny had described it as a cold, dark void. He had said that he wasn’t sure if he had been remembering her death or his time in Mikoshi, but either way, she now knew from personal experience that it was a kind of death—the annihilation of the conscious self thanks to someone flipping a switch. And yet despite that, you were still aware of your circumstances on some dim level. The way she saw it, the closest way to describe it was being in a coma, although even that might not be fully accurate.

It had made her start thinking about some of the myths revolving around men who sought to bring their dead lovers back from the afterlife, and she found a certain bleak humor in the fact that she was Eurydice to Goro’s Orpheus as he tried to lead her out of the underworld and return her to the land of the living. But where the Orpheus of myth had failed, she had to believe that Goro wouldn’t make the same mistake and look back when he needed to keep looking forward. The tale of Izanagi (伊奘諾) and Izanami (伊奘冉), the Japanese creator gods, was very similar, which she thought was something that Goro might relate to if she ever brought the two stories up to him.

As she understood it, pained by Izanami’s untimely death in childbirth, Izanagi descended into Yominokuni (黄泉の国) seeking to restore her to life. But Izanami told him that it was too late because she had already partaken of the food of the dead and warned him that he must not look at her. Instead of obeying her, he lit a fire that revealed her now rotting visage. Furious over her husband’s disobedience and the humiliation of having her now hideous face seen by him, Izanami sought revenge and pursued him, but Izanagi eventually trapped her with a stone placed at the entrance to the underworld. Together, they had given birth to many of the islands and gods in Japan, but it was a story that essentially ended in hatred, bitterness, and spite after Izanagi forced Izanami back into the land of the dead—a coda that she had found even more depressing than that of the tale of Orpheus.

 _Maybe I should stop thinking about mythological love stories gone horribly wrong, especially when the headshrinker is on her way,_ V thought. Right on schedule, the door slid open and Dr. Maeda walked in. V’s daily routine had more or less settled into 30 minutes maximum with the psychologist starting at 10 a.m., followed by 15 minutes of free time during which she got occasional updates from Kensington, and then however much time out of the remaining hour and fifteen minutes she was able to spend with Goro.

Maeda’s heels clicked on the floor as she walked over to the desk and seated herself. Activating her datapad to take notes, she asked, “And how are things going?”

“They’re fine,” V said, still wary of revealing too much to the psychologist, even though Dr. Maeda had somehow managed to convince Goro to act on his feelings with regard to V—something that she felt that she owed the psychologist a great deal for.

“Just fine?” Maeda raised an eyebrow at her.

V tilted her head at Maeda. “I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m still sane, and I’m not having a nervous breakdown right now, so...good?”

“We’ve talked about your past before, so maybe it’s time to talk about the present in a little more detail than ‘fine,’ don’t you think?” Maeda asked.

“In some ways I feel...safer than I did before, but it’s not easy, not even with—” V caught herself before saying Goro’s name. She immediately changed course and said, “—with a new outlook. You want me to be honest, really honest here? I still fear it...the darkness...and the idea of never waking up again.”

Maeda gave her a warning look to make sure that she wouldn’t say anything revealing about Takemura since the surveillance system was active in the room. V caught the message and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

“Anyway, you know that already, don’t you? Why make me say it?” V asked.

“The best way to deal with your fears is by acknowledging them—once you say them out loud, it usually makes you realize that they aren’t as bad as you thought thought they were,” Maeda said. “And sometimes, that’s the difference between making it through another day or not.”

“Don’t worry—I’ll make it through this day, just like all the others. Why? Worried about losing your bonus if I go completely catatonic because I can’t take it anymore?” V grinned at the psychologist in a display of bravado that she didn’t really feel.

Maeda began entering more notes. From V’s vantage point, it looked like the psychologist was typing out an inordinately long paragraph. After Maeda finished writing, she said, “You know, Takemura-san is right about you—you _are_ pretty insufferable.”

“Gee, I thought that was part of my charm,” V said dryly.

Maeda gave V one of her frequent smiles. “It’s a good thing that I have a nearly bottomless fount of patience—it’s a job requirement with all of the bullshit that gets thrown at me by my patients. I think you’re a world-class bullshitter by the way.”

V laughed and said, “I’m starting to like you, Maeda-sensei. But I still don’t know how the hell someone like you has survived here for so long.” The change in address was a sign of the respect she was starting to feel for the doctor.

Maeda thought about it for a moment and said, “I expect that it’s because Arasaka doesn’t like needlessly wasting money or resources. I fix those who are broken or close to it, and that keeps them happy because they don’t have to spend even more money on new talent, new implants, lawsuits when someone...goes off the deep end like Jenkins did with the ESA, etc.”

V winced upon hearing her former boss’s name, but she was also grateful to Dr. Maeda and said, “All kidding aside...thank you.”

*

_10:45 a.m._

“You look like a million eddies—and I’m dead serious this time,” V said, noticing Goro’s suit immediately upon his entrance. It had been cut from a dove gray material that was subtly shot through with silver threads and complemented his eyes and hair. He had paired it with a white shirt and what seemed to be his favorite red silk belt around his waist. The belt had been tied in what appeared to be the customary manner for Goro, and she had always assumed that it was a direct reference to the Arasaka colors, which traditionally combined black and red or a dark charcoal gray and red—not counting Hanako-sama and her penchant for white the last time V had seen her.

Goro bowed slightly to V and said, “Since I will be meeting with the Queen of the Afterlife this evening, I am ‘dressing to impress’ as you would say.”

“Mmhmmmmm,” she said, staring intently at his waist as she tried to figure out exactly how to untie his belt since the knot was hidden off to the side under his coat.

Somewhere between amused and annoyed by V’s single-minded interest in getting into his pants at a completely inappropriate time again, he finally landed on the side of lightly teasing her and asked, “And what would you steal now after taking my pride from me the other day? My clothes?”

She looked up at his face, trying to read his mood. “Do you want me to? Because I have a few ideas about where to start....”

V was practically purring at him now, and Goro suddenly eyed her warily as if she were laying another trap for him like the one from yesterday. “As much as I would enjoy finding out, I need to focus on gaining _that_ woman’s compliance,” he said, refusing to call Rogue by her name, which he had almost as much of an aversion to saying as he did the name of V’s cat. “A lesson might help keep your mind occupied,” he suggested carefully.

“No,” V said stubbornly.

He raised an eyebrow in surprise at her response. “No?”

“Didn’t study at all yesterday after our visit. I was thinking too much about Kang Tao—and _you_ ,” V said as she raised one finger and then a second finger.

Resting his elbows on the surface of the desk and lacing his fingers together, Goro said, “Which should _not_ affect your ability to learn today, so I will—”

“Nope,” she said, interrupting him.

「ふざけんなよ、きみ!」he said irritably. In English, Goro said, “Please be serious, Valerie. Just this once, I very sincerely ask you to stop fucking around. Do you realize what is at stake here?”

_Rōmaji: Fuzakennayo, kimi!_

_Translation: Stop fucking around!  
_

“I do—of course I do,” V said as she unashamedly ran her eyes up and down his frame, thinking about how eminently fuckable he looked right now.

Goro tried with great difficulty to ignore her eyes on him and said, “If it were any other day, I would indulge your flirtation if that is what you need from me, but getting information on Kang Tao must come first today.”

“Fine, fine,” she said, her disappointment evident. There was more than a little acidity in her voice as she added, “Whatever you say, Takemura- _sensei_. Teach away.”

“Very impertinent—you could have benefited from some of the discipline I learned as an Arasaka soldier,” Goro said only half-jokingly.“You do need to learn the two verbs for ‘to be’ or ‘to exist,’ so ある (aru)is used for inanimate objects while いる (iru)is used for living things and is often combined with other verbs to indicate that an action is taking place in the now.”

V waved her hand at him to continue, not particularly interested in speaking but still following along. She knew he was right and that she should get her shit together, but she also felt like she was about to jump out of her skin if she didn’t get some kind of...well, release wouldn’t be the right term under the circumstances. It was more than just a matter of pent-up desire—she wanted and needed a distraction that could take her mind off of Mikoshi for a while. Blowing off some steam with Goro _might_ have helped a bit in that regard, but since he wasn’t willing to play along at the moment, it was going to be a long hour-plus for V to be awake.

*

_11:30 a.m._

“One last test to see how well you understand,” Goro said. He pointed at a book that he assumed Dr. Maeda had likely left on the desk and asked, 「ここに何がありますか ?」

_Rōmaji: Koko ni nani ga arimasu ka?_

_Translation: What is this over here?_

Sounding bored, V replied, 「そこに本があります 。」

_Rōmaji: Soko ni hon ga arimasu._

_Translation: There is a book over there._

Goro nodded and said, “Excellent, but I am afraid that I must leave early. I must see if I can arrange a meeting with someone else who might help us after I keep my appointment with that woman.” He raised a finger and added, “But before I leave, I will teach you something that may please you.”

V gave him a frosty look and testily said, “This had better be fucking preem.”

He could tell that she was still upset with him for shutting her down earlier, so he was intent on trying to make up for it before departing. “Do you remember how I taught you 心 (kokoro) the day before last?”

She nodded, her irritation lessening slightly as he reminded her of how he had told her that she had become his heart. “Yes, but since you once told me that being paranoid and alive is better than being foolish and dead, it seems a little reckless for you to bring it up at all.”

“Valerie, you must learn patience and let me finish—occasionally, you are all words and action without thought,” he chided gently. “This 漢字 (kanji) is _also_ a radical in a number of other characters that involve love.”

V raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Okay, so do you want to tell me exactly what happened to being excessively cautious and secretive? Because this is a _bit_ of a 180 for you.”

Goro rubbed at his chin and said, “Maeda-sensei’s words and yours from yesterday made me reconsider my position somewhat. Also, it is the third day—if Arasaka-sama were actively spying on us or if Kensington-sensei and Maeda-sensei had any intention of betraying us, they would have done so by now. Therefore, as long as nothing is revealed to others outside of these walls, I will be...less indirect while within them.” He turned away and began to draw a series of thirteen strokes so that V could see the 漢字 (kanji) written correctly and then said, “This character represents 愛 (ai)—love, but it also gives form to the adjective 愛しい (itoshii), which can mean beloved or dearest. For example,「俺の愛しい泥棒 (Ore no itoshii dorobou)」means ‘my beloved thief’ in English.”

“You’re such a fucking bastard for dropping bombs like that on me when I’m determined to be pissed off at you,” V said, a soft smile on her face at last. “But I guess that it makes up for the rest of today, so I’ll forgive you...for now at least.”

Goro walked up to the glass between them and slowly drew two fingers lightly across the surface, tracing a path down from V’s throat that stopped right between her legs. “Yes, that is quite true—I _can_ be a total bastard. But tomorrow I will be all yours, and whatever you ask of me, I will do— _within reason._ Does that satisfy you, my beloved?” he asked, his silver eyes fixed on hers.

Her blood was suddenly roaring so loudly in her ears that V could barely hear herself when she answered, “Yes.”

He turned to leave and said with some amusement, “Good, it is a...date then—of sorts.”

“Wait, there’s something I need to ask you to do for me when you’re over there,” V said. She beckoned for him to come as close as he could and then whispered her request through the glass into his ear.

Goro thought about it for a moment and nodded. “Yes, this I will do for you and for him. Be well, Valerie.”

*

_The Afterlife_

_Night City_

_2079_

_Day Three—8:00 p.m._

The same bouncer from two years ago was at the door, his eyes glowing red as he scanned Goro. He knew that the scan would reveal that his implants were fully active, and although Emmerick expressionlessly waved him through, the bouncer was watching him like a hawk as he crossed the threshold. As for the Afterlife itself, the bar looked exactly like it did when he had first come as a supplicant and been turned away by the woman known as the queen of the fixers. The combination of noxious green lighting and harsh white fluorescent lights remained as unflattering and cold as it had always been, and the former morgue was as unwelcoming as he had last remembered it. He did his own scan, marking potential threats and noting that at least 70% of the patrons looked like they wanted to kill him, while 30% seemed interested in fucking him—a ratio that was usually the reverse in establishments patronized by Arasaka.

Since V had made a special request of him before he had left Arasaka Tower, he headed to the bar and motioned for the bartender to come over. Claire saw his Arasaka markings and reluctantly made her way to him. “What can I get for you?”

“You know V?” Goro asked. “She told me to order a Jackie Welles from you to honor her friend, and she also said to tell you this: ‘Don’t forget the splash of love, Claire.’”

Claire looked at him strangely while mixing the drink. “So you’re a friend of V’s, huh? Haven’t heard from her in a while, and I’m guessing there’s a story here, considering who you are—seen you in a few news vids with... _him_ ,” she said, referring to Arasaka Saburo.

“It is a long story for another time, but she is well even if she cannot be here right now,” he said, not elaborating further.

“Okay, man of mystery,” Claire said, sliding the drink to him. He peeled off a few eddies to pay for it, but she stopped him. “It’s on the house because of V—but I’m charging you through the nose for the next one if you order anything else. Our ‘Saka rates are gonna be in full effect even if you’re some kind of _friend_ of hers.”

“My thanks,” he said, downing the drink in one go. _Not bad—for Night City that is,_ he thought. From the bar, he could see Rogue seated in her booth at the back of the Afterlife. It was the place that everyone wanted to be, and all the mercs orbited around her like they were the planets and she was the sun at their center. Her presence was unmistakable, and she clearly still favored that hideous yellow top that he had seen her in before. He honestly could not understand how anyone could wear such a thing when it made one look like a fucking banana, but he had little interest in the questionable fashion sense of mercs and fixers.

Goro walked over to Rogue’s booth, and one of the Afterlife’s less intelligent mercs tried to hold him back, at which point he _moved_ —almost faster than the eye could see—and quickly had his hand around the taller man’s throat, lifting him off of his feet and exerting just enough pressure to keep him struggling for breath without completely cutting off his airway as he dangled in the air. With all of his cybernetics online, he had his full speed and strength back.

Rogue narrowed her eyes, leaning back and taking him in as her MR implants lit up. “Looks like the sad ‘Saka dog that came begging me for help two years ago got his teeth back. Teeth or not, I should throw you the fuck out of my bar again.”

“I did not beg two years ago if you will recall—nor will I be doing so today. As for _you_ throwing me out of your most delightful establishment, you do realize that I could crush your man’s throat any time I want, yes?” he asked, tightening his grip in a visceral display of his power that caused the merc to gurgle until he relaxed his hand and allowed the hapless man who had started to turn as purple as his dyed hair to breathe again. “But I will not do that, because we have business to attend to—and because V insisted that I not harm her friends.”

Rogue crossed her arms and looked at him with disgust. “You call this not harming V’s friends?”

Goro released the merc who now looked at him with fear and sat down next to Rogue, both of them staring at each other with undisguised hatred. “I had to get your attention. And just so that you understand our changed positions at present, it is _you_ who will come to heel.”

“And how the fuck do you think you’ll manage that, Saburo’s hound?” She laced every single word with venom but motioned for everyone to leave them alone.

He waited patiently until they had privacy and then threatened, “Because if you do not, then I will eventually make your past known to everyone here. If I have learned one thing from V, it is that a fixer is only as good as their reputation. Should you be deemed untrustworthy, I wonder how long you would manage to remain queen of your domain before someone takes your throne away from you—and _I_ certainly know best how one’s fortunes can change in an instant.”

Rogue lit a cigarette up and took a puff before tapping it on the ashtray. “Well, look who got a new set of ‘nads along with his new threads. Except that you’re still on a leash, aren’t you?” She aimed her cigarette at him before taking another drag off of it.

Goro smiled thinly at her, his eyes brightening in anger as she tested his patience. “You know as well as I do that you have been on Arasaka’s leash before. And you will address me as Takemura from now on, or I will consider ignoring V’s request.” He shot a meaningful look at the man he had just choked. While he would never willingly break his word to V, Rogue didn’t know that and would consider it a legitimate threat.

“Oh, really?” Rogue asked, stubbing her cigarette out. “Tell me more about what you _think_ you know about me, _Takemura_.”

Throwing down the roll of eddies he’d brought as payment on the table, Goro said, “You did several jobs for us over the years while unaware of Silverhand’s fate in Mikoshi, until V appeared with his engram in her head—and do not think to lie, because we both know this for a fact.” He paused to gauge her response and then added, “From V, I know what happened on the _Ebunike_ with Grayson and how rattled you were when he started making insinuations about how you alone survived the attack on Arasaka Tower unscathed, which means that you were—and still are—hiding something. Clearly, only _some_ of your past work for us was on the books.”

Rogue laughed and said, “All you have is supposition.”

“For now. But Grayson will be so much easier to find than Hellman was—and when I find that 屑 (kuzu), I will extract every last piece of information about you that he has in his possession. It would be such a shame if people were to one day find out that you are so much less than the anarchistic, anti-corporate legend that they believe you to be.” Giving her another smile that didn’t reach his eyes, he asked, “If Silverhand had known the extent of your work for us, would he have thought of you as—to use one of his favorite expressions—a corpocunt for having spread your legs for the enemy he failed to destroy?”

“Fuck you,” Rogue said. “It’s no secret that I take jobs from corps just like everybody else does—even the ones that I loathe.”

“Yet you seem to have kept the work you have done for Arasaka secret—as if you are deeply ashamed and do not want anyone to know of it. Is that because you broke faith with Silverhand and betrayed his trust here in the very city that we still own?” he asked, thinking about Arasaka-sama even as his words were aimed at her heart. “Take the job, and we can both let whatever truth you are hiding remain buried in the sands of the past.”

Rogue eyed him with hostility. “You don’t know shit, but fine, let’s say that I’ll take your money and do this. What do you want?”

“I am giving you 15,000 eddies to look into a rumor about Kang Tao having come up with their own more advanced version of Relic 2.0. I wish to know exactly what they plan on doing with it _if_ it exists. I also want details on the team or the individual responsible and information about where the schematics and all backups are stored,” Goro said, pointing at the money he had thrown onto the table earlier.

“Tall ask for only fifteen thou,” Rogue said, looking at the roll of bills like it had crawled straight out of a sewer.

Flexing his fingers while looking disinterestedly at her, he said, “And yet you will do this—not only do I hold Grayson over you, I think the more compelling reason is that you owe V for what she gave you: closure with your Silverhand _and_ Smasher.”

“Fuck,” Rogue said, lighting up another cigarette. “I can already guess where all the data and backups are probably stored: Ghost City. The real question is if they have all that info stored somewhere else in a form that you’ll actually have a hope in hell of klepping from them. Why haven’t you taken this to your people anyway? Why me?”

“Three primary reasons: discretion, competence, and speed,” Goro answered. “And because factions still exist within Arasaka, I want knowledge of this limited to myself and Arasaka-sama for now.”

Staring daggers at him, she asked, “What about V? You keep mentioning her, acting like you know her _really_ well. Where does she tie in to all of this?”

He decided to give Rogue enough of the truth to satisfy her MR implants and said, “She aided me in my vendetta, and now she is back in the fold with Arasaka so to speak. You do not need to know more than that.”

Rogue could tell that he was hedging even without her MR implants, but even if she wanted to look into V and this ‘Saka bodyguard to try to turn the situation around on him—and she was royally pissed right now—she calculated that it would be extremely difficult to dig anything substantive up, especially since V seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth after the shit that had gone down at Arasaka Tower. Meanwhile, she had decided to take the contract—not because she feared his threats or losing her rep but because it intrigued her _and_ because he was right that she felt like she owed V something. “Fine. I’ll get back to you in three days. Now get the fuck out of my sight until then,” she said, blowing smoke in his face and dismissing him with a wave.

“A pleasure as always,” Goro said dryly, rising to his feet. He straightened his jacket and didn’t bother bowing to her, considering her unworthy of even a modicum of respect. His eyes briefly flashed blue as he wordlessly passed his contact information to her before leaving.

*

_Dark Matter_

_Night City_

_2079_

_Day Three—10:00 p.m._

Dark Matter was a high-class establishment more along the lines of what Goro was used to. He had managed to set up a meeting with an old friend, one who was undoubtedly not going to be entirely happy to see him. The place had a wraparound bar topped with the same rich, dark wood used in the paneling that lined the walls. There was what looked like either white marble or quartz framed by a much darker version of the same stone along the back wall, with the large slabs of stone serving as the backdrop to the shelves holding the liquor bottles. The booths off to the side had seats lined with a golden fabric that seemed gaudy to him, but the place was otherwise tasteful. He shot a discouraging look at the joytoy before she could even open her mouth to make a play for him and tapped on the bar to get the bartender’s attention.

“Macallan—neat,” he said, waiting as the bartender poured out his drink. Using his implants, he sent an image to the man. “I will be on the balcony, so when you see my associate, tell him to meet me there.”

Goro grabbed his drink and made his way outside. Up this high, one could not smell the stench of the city or see its filth, but he still picked the table near the trellis covered in jasmine so that he could breathe in its sweet perfume. With the sky over Night City blanketed by clouds, the light from the streams of neon signage rising through the air hit the cloud layer and diffused across it. The effect of the jumbled colors dancing across the undersurface of the clouds reminded him of an aurora, and it was almost beautiful enough to make him forget where he was. Swirling his glass, he took a sip of his whiskey and decided to nurse his drink. _Something this expensive should be savored at great length,_ he thought.

*

_Ten Minutes Later_

Goro was finishing the last of his whiskey when he heard a familiar voice call out to him.

「竹村さん (Takemura-san)、」said the voice to his left.

Without looking, he said, 「小田 (Oda)。」

「今は二年前だったら、まだ俺の首を頼宣に差し上げますか？」asked Oda, approaching him with two small glasses, both of which appeared to contain the chilled 純米大吟醸酒 (junmai daiginjouzake) that the younger man favored.

_Rōmaji: Ima wa ninen mae dattara, mada ore no kubi wo Yorinobu ni sashiagemasu ka?_

_Translation: If this were two years ago, would you still offer up my head to Yorinobu?_

Oda was wearing a dark suit, his black hair falling to one side and his white eyes as piercing as ever. He proceeded to not-so-gently slam one of the glasses onto the table, but none of the precious alcohol sloshed out. Though he and Takemura had reconciled after the assault to stop Yorinobu, Oda still became somewhat irritable whenever reminded about the parade incident. Even now, Oda considered it a personal failure that his refusal to listen to Takemura and V at the pier had led directly to Hanako-sama having been put in so much danger.

Goro gave him a wry smile and said, 「いいえ、俺の考え方は...ちょっと違って来ました。」

_Rōmaji: Iie, ore no kangaekata wa...chotto chigatte kimashita._

_Translation: No, my way of thinking has...come to be a little different._

Oda rolled his glass between his palms, considering Goro’s answer before saying, 「竹村さんの泥棒に変わられたそうです...ちょっとだけ。」

_Rōmaji: Takemura-san no dorobou ni kawarareta sou desu...chotto dake._

_Translation: It seems that you have been changed by your thief...just a bit._

Goro nodded in agreement and raised his glass in an ironic toast. Since he wasn’t on any kind of official business, alcohol was perfectly permissible. 「そうかも知れない、」he said, enjoying the light, delicate flavor of the 酒 (sake).

_Rōmaji: Sou ka mo shirenai._

_Translation: That might be so._

「まあ、どうしてここに頼まれたの？」Oda asked, looking out at glittering lights of the city below. He still longed for home and had little love for Night City, but Hanako-sama had taken her place here as had always been intended. His duty to her meant that he would stay by her side for as long as he was deemed fit to serve.

_Rōmaji: Maa, doushite koko ni tanomareta no?_

_Translation: Well, why did you ask me here?_

As Goro looked at the flowering jasmine vines on the trellis, he was struck by how much V was like one of the fragile white blooms in her current state. He mused aloud, 「この都市は神のない国なのに綺麗な花がまだ咲くそうだね？」Then he answered Oda’s question and said, 「とにかく、その理由はV-さんの命を救いたいんだ。」

_Rōmaji: Kono toshi wa kami no nai kuni na no ni kirei na hana ga mada saku sou da ne? ... Tonikaku, sono riyuu wa V-san no inochi wo sukuitain da._

_Translation: Even though this city is a land without gods, it seems that beautiful flowers still bloom, do they not? ... In any case, the reason is that I want to save V’s life._

If Oda had not long ago mastered the art of remaining completely impassive regardless of the circumstances as all bodyguards had to do, his mouth likely would have been hanging open in shock. Takemura had asked him here for V’s sake—the woman who had humiliated him twice by defeating him _and_ by showing him mercy because his mentor had asked her to spare his life. He had gotten over the indignity of his defeat at her hands some time ago; after all, it had been a fair fight and his injured pride had long since healed. However, his belief that he had failed to uphold his duty to Hanako-sama had remained something of an open wound. Oda asked, “V-さんの事について何か興味があるの？」

_Rōmaji: V-san no koto ni tsuite nanika kyoumi ga aru no?_

_Translation: Do you have some kind of an interest in V?_

Two years and his loss of faith in Arasaka-sama had changed Goro, made him more flexible than he had been back then when he would have handed Oda’s head to Yorinobu without a second thought in the hypothetical situation that Oda had now twice presented him with. And while Dr. Maeda’s and V’s words had also had an effect on him, he was not about to openly admit to any kind of relationship with V to Oda, so he said,「そう言う事が言えばいいんだ。V-さんは俺の命の恩人だから大恩がある。」

_Rōmaji: Sou iu koto ga ieba iin desu. V-san wa ore no inochi no onjin dakara daion ga aru._

_Translation: You could say that. Because V is my savior, I have a great personal obligation to her._

Oda nodded in understanding—if there was one thing that they both shared, it was their views on duty and obligation. Goro pressed forward and went on to explain at length about the rumor he had learned of from Kensington and the implications of another corporation having its own improved version of Relic 2.0, pointing out to Oda that it wasn’t just that it would help V but that it could affect the corporate balance of power and Arasaka’s fortunes dramatically. He also informed Oda about choosing to use Rogue to investigate the matter.

Oda was surprised to hear about the fixer whose hatred of Arasaka was well known and asked, 「本当にあの蛇女の言葉を信じるの？」

_Rōmaji: Honto ni ano hebi-onna no kotoba wo shinjiru no?_

_Translation: Do you really trust that snake woman’s words?_

Goro shook his head. His tone was disdainful as he said,「いいえ、でも荒坂に恨みがあってもずっと前に会社の為に使命をしたんだ。金の為にあの女は何でもするんだよ。」

_Rōmaji: Iie, demo Arasaka ni urami ga atte mo zutto mae ni kaisha no tame ni shimei wo shitan da. Kane no tame niano onna wa nandemo surun da yo._

_Translation: No, but even though she has a grudge against Arasaka, she also did jobs for the company long ago. That woman will do anything for money._

Oda had heard all he needed to and said, 「もう十分だ。ある時が来ると俺の力を貸すつもりだ。」He switched to English briefly since he wanted Takemura to give V a message directly from him to her in her own language. “Please tell V-san that I look forward to a friendly rematch once she is restored to herself.”

_Rōmaji: Mou juubun da. Aru toki ga kuru to ore ni chikara wo kasu tsumori da._

_Translation: That is enough. When the time comes, I intend to lend you my strength._

Goro said,「ありがとう、小田。」

_Rōmaji: Arigatou, Oda._

_Translation: Thanks, Oda._

「ああ、忘れた、もう一つ物がある。俺の付けを払ってね？」Oda said, one of his rare smiles on his face as he waved on his way out.

_Rōmaji: Aa, wasureta, mou hitotsu mono ga aru. Ore no tsuke wo haratte ne?_

_Translation: Oh, I forgot—there’s one more thing. You’ll pay my tab, won’t you?_

Goro returned his smile and nodded, bowing slightly while still seated as Oda departed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And where was I on that list of Japanese terms...oh yeah, here we go:
> 
> 4) ふざけんなよ、きみ (Fuzakennayo, kimi!) = Stop fucking around!  
> This is alternatively: "Stop bullshitting!" or "Stop joking!" - more or less. What I didn't mention is the "kimi" part, and kimi = you; now I dropped it from the translation because while it makes sense in Japanese, it's just kind of awkward to throw it there in English. Goro is tacking "you" on at the end and directing it at V because he's annoyed. Anyway, "fuzakeru" (the root verb) means to joke/kid, but when you use the specific phrase I use in the story, you're basically telling someone to quit fucking around in kind of a rude way (the severity sort of depends on tone). And yes, I felt this was one of those things that perhaps required more explanation.
> 
> 5/6/7) ここ/そこ/あそこ (koko/soko/asoko) = We did this the last time, but...koko = here (near me), soko = there (away from me but near you, the listener) and asoko = way over there (far away from both me and you). Maybe this is slightly more detailed than last time, lol. 
> 
> 8) 心 (kokoro) = heart or spirit
> 
> 9) 漢字 (kanji) = the Japanese system of writing using Chinese characters
> 
> 10) 愛 (ai) = love
> 
> 11) 愛しい (itoshii) = -i adjective meaning beloved, dearest, etc.
> 
> 12) 俺 (ore) = I/me  
> This is masculine, usually used by older/adult males. Don't ever use this if you're female (lol). A younger guy or kid might use "boku," and even some older guys might - not sure I really see either Goro or Oda doing that, but you never know.
> 
> 13) 屑 (kuzu) = scum, trash, or garbage
> 
> 14) 今 (ima) = now
> 
> 15) 二年 (ninen) = two years
> 
> 16) 前 (mae) = before/ago
> 
> 17) だったら (dattara) = if it were back then
> 
> 18) まだ (mada) = still
> 
> 19) 首 (kubi) = head/neck  
> Technically, it's literally neck...but it's also used to mean the entire head. And in this case, I'm definitely using it to mean the entire head.
> 
> 20) 頼宣 (Yorinobu) = proper name (it's Yorinobu - at least, this is one way that you can write it)
> 
> 21) 差し上げます (sashiagemasu) = the masu form of "sashiageru," which means to offer up/give/present
> 
> 22) 純米大吟醸酒 (junmai daiginjouzake) = pure rice sake of the highest quality  
> It's the premium stuff. Anyhow, maybe I should just link this guide for anyone who cares about this at all (you'll have to copy and past the URL probably): http://www.japansake.or.jp/sake/english/howto/type.html
> 
> 23) 考え方 (kangaekata) = way of thinking
> 
> 24) ちょっと (chotto) = a little, a bit
> 
> 25) 違って来ました (chigatte kimashita) = has come to change
> 
> 26) 小田 (Oda) = character surname
> 
> 27) 竹村 (Takemura) = character surname
> 
> 28) 泥棒 (dorobou) = thief
> 
> 29) 変わられた (kawareta) = changed by (passive)
> 
> 30) そうです (sou desu) = it seems
> 
> 31) だけ (dake) = only, just
> 
> 32) そうかも知れない (sou ka mo shirenai) = that might be so
> 
> 33) まあ (maa) = well
> 
> 34) どうして (doushite) = why
> 
> 35) 頼まれた (tanomareta) = asked/invited
> 
> 36) の (no) = particle being used to imply a question  
> I will just say that "no" gets thrown around a lot in different ways, and I will not explain them all here, lol.
> 
> 37) 都市 (toshi) = city
> 
> 38) 神のない国 (kami no nai kuni) = godless land/land without gods  
> To break that down here: kami = god(s), nai = without/lacking, and kuni = land/country.
> 
> 39) なのに (na no ni) = even though/despite
> 
> 40) 綺麗 (kirei) = beautiful
> 
> 41) 花 (hana) = flower
> 
> 42) 咲く (saku) = to bloom
> 
> 43) そうだね (sou da ne) = seems, doesn't it?
> 
> 44) とにかく (tonikaku) = in any case
> 
> 45) 理由 (riyuu) = reason
> 
> 46) 命 (inochi) = life
> 
> 47) 救いたいんだ (sukuitain da) = I want to save
> 
> 48) 事 (koto) = thing/subject
> 
> 49) について (ni tsuite) = about
> 
> 50) 何か (nanika) = some kind of
> 
> 60) 興味 (kyoumi) = interest
> 
> 61) 恩人 (onjin) = savior
> 
> 62) だから (dakara) = therefore, because
> 
> 63) 大恩 (daion) = great personal debt/obligation
> 
> 64) 本当に (honto ni) = really, truly
> 
> 65) 蛇女 (hebi-onna) = snake woman
> 
> 66) 言葉 (kotoba) = word(s)
> 
> 67) 信じる (shinjiru) = believe
> 
> 68) でも (demo) = but
> 
> 69) 荒坂 (Arasaka) = proper noun
> 
> 70) 恨み (urami) = grudge
> 
> 71) あっても (atte mo) = even though there is
> 
> 72) ずっと前に (zutto mae ni) = long ago
> 
> 73) 会社 (kaisha) = company
> 
> 74) 為 (tame) = sake
> 
> 75) 使命 (shimei) = job/task
> 
> 76) 金 (kane) = money
> 
> 77) 十分 (juubun) = enough
> 
> 78) 何でも (nandemo) = anything
> 
> 79) する (suru) = to do
> 
> 80) ある時 (aru toki) = a certain time, that time
> 
> 81) 来る (kuru) = to come
> 
> 82) 力 (chikara) = strength
> 
> 83) 貸す (kasu) = to lend
> 
> 84) つもり (tsumori) = intend
> 
> 85) ありがとう (arigatou) = thanks
> 
> 86) ああ (aa) = oh
> 
> 87) 忘れた (wasureta) = forgot
> 
> 88) もう一つ (mou hitotsu) = one more
> 
> 89) 物 (mono) = thing
> 
> 90) 付け (tsuke) = bill, tab
> 
> 91) 払って (haratte) = pay
> 
> 92) ね (ne) = it's a particle that's basically being used as "won't you."


	4. 闇の中で君を愛している (Yami no Naka de Kimi wo Ai Shite Iru)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With three days of waiting to do until Rogue comes up with information on the rumors of Kang Tao's improved version of the Relic 2.0, Goro follows through on his promise of a "date" with V in Arasaka Tower and indulges her requests as promised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was either the best idea or the worst idea, but seeing as V isn't getting her body back anytime soon, everyone's going to have to settle for Goro stripping down for V in Arasaka Tower and...yeah, you'll see. Speaking of which, what happens is 100% ill-advised from a purely logical perspective, but sometimes you do stupid things for love, right? And now for the regularly scheduled translations!
> 
> 1) 闇の中で君を愛している (Yami no Naka de Kimi wo Ai Shite Iru) = From Within the Darkness, I Love You (in This Moment)  
> If you recognize this song lyric, then congratulations, you also have good taste and obviously like Hoshino Gen's song "Pop Virus" from Death Stranding! It was the game I was playing right before jumping into Cyberpunk 2077, and I think the line kind of fits this chapter.
> 
> 1a) 闇 (yami) = darkness
> 
> 1b) 中で (naka de) = within/from within
> 
> 1c) 君 (kimi) = you
> 
> 1d) 愛している (ai shite iru) = I love you (in this moment)  
> Again, think of -te iru as a gerund more or less.
> 
> 2) 桐箱 (kiribako) = pauwlonia wood box  
> 桐 (kiri) means pauwlonia, and 箱 (hako) means box - stick them together, and boom.
> 
> 3) 一石二鳥 (isseki nichou) = One stone, two birds.  
> It's the Japanese version of killing two birds with one stone, with 一石 (isseki) being one stone and 二鳥 (nichou) being two birds.
> 
> 4) 京都 (Kyōto) = city name  
> This one seems obvious, heh.
> 
> 5) 春の桜 (haru no sakura) = spring cherry blossoms  
> 春 (Haru) is spring, and 桜 (sakura) is cherry/cherry blossoms.
> 
> 6) 枝垂れ桜盆栽 (shidarezakura bonsai) = weeping cherry bonsai  
> 枝垂れ桜 (Shidarezakura) means weeping cherry, and 盆栽 (bonsai) is a bonsai (or if you want me to be boring, I'll quote my dictionary and say "miniature potted plant").
> 
> 7) 私の狼 (Watashi no ookami) = my wolf  
> 私 (watash) is I/me, and 狼 (ookami) is wolf. V uses it as term of endearment.
> 
> 8)) 俺を見て (Ore wo mite) = Look at me!/Watch me!  
> We've gone over 俺 (ore) several times now, but it's a masculine form of "I/me." As for 見て (mite), it's the -te form of "miru" and is being used in the sense of an order. Goro is ordering V to watch him/look at him in one scene. *cough*
> 
> 9) 化け猫 (bakeneko) = ghost cat/cat spirit  
> 化け (bake) is the part that means ghost/spirit, and 猫 (neko) is cat.

Chapter 4

闇の中で君を愛している

(Yami no Naka de Kimi wo Ai Shite Iru)

_Arasaka Tower_

_Night City_

_2079_

_Day Four—10:45 a.m._

Goro was carrying a large 桐箱 (kiribako) as he entered the room, and it was a well-made piece whose beauty lay in its flawless craftsmanship. The pale, fine-grained pauwlonia wood was smooth to the touch and seemed to glow against the backdrop of his black suit whose inky fabric had its own soft sheen. As he carefully placed the mysterious box on the desk and performed his usual scan of the room, his clothes reminded V of the first time she had seen him.

He had been dressed in black that day in Konpeki Plaza when she and Jackie had hidden within the pillar in Yorinobu’s suite after they had klepped the biochip. Even as he had scanned their hiding place, his eyes glowing red, there was something about him that had transfixed her despite the fear and the adrenaline running through her veins—the natural reaction to any apex predator. Fortunately, he had been summarily dismissed from the room by his master before completing the scan, neither he nor V realizing at the time that hell was about to rain down on both their lives.

After Dex had betrayed her and left her for dead in the landfill, she remembered using every ounce of her failing strength to claw her way out of her grave, only to have Goro appear before her like some kind of vengeful, shadowy demon in the same damned outfit. Shortly thereafter, he had emotionlessly zeroed DeShawn even as the bastard had continued to try to talk his way out of his imminent death sentence with the most amazing amount of chutzpah she had ever seen. V had only been semi-lucid at the time, but she hazily recalled taking pleasure in watching his execution at Goro’s hands. And when she had seen the red plume of blood spraying out from Dex’s head, she had immediately known that unlike her, he wouldn’t be rising from the dead anytime soon.

She guessed that Goro must have started hunting them down right after Arasaka Saburo’s death at the behest of Yorinobu, although Yorinobu had clearly wanted to kill two birds with one stone—or 一石二鳥 (isseki nichou) as the Japanese version that she had come across went—and eliminate the both of them as a way to tie up loose ends. They had barely survived the attack by the assassins that Yorinobu had sent after them, but the same couldn’t be said of Goro’s suit, which had been a total loss. One of the very last things she remembered from that day was seeing him collapse against the Delamain cab at Vik’s, blood running freely from his arm.

“This may be the world’s most unconventional date, but I’m not sure that reminding me of how you terrified me at Konpeki Plaza and knocked me unconscious right after I crawled out of a landfill was the ideal way to kick things off,” V said, trying to make light of her past trauma—something of a defense mechanism for her.

He let out a raspy laugh. “But you have told me before that I look good in black, so I thought it would please you. Hmm, what should we do about this problem then?”

“First, you should show me what’s in there,” she said, pointing at the box.

“You noticed,” he said wryly, removing the lid without letting V get a look inside. “Since it will be some time before I can take you to 京都 (Kyōto) to see the 春の桜 (haru no sakura), I thought I would bring the flowers to you instead.”

Cushioned on a bed of purple fabric within the box was a large 枝垂れ桜盆栽 (shidarezakura bonsai) in a simple glazed white pot. He gently lifted the weeping cherry bonsai from the box and walked over to V with it in his hands so that she could inspect it. The flowers blushed a deep pink at their centers, their petals turning pale at their outer edges until they were almost white. Verdant moss was mounded at the plant’s base, and small pebbles were strewn to one side forming a miniature riverbank.

V gasped, stunned by how beautiful it was and the amount of work, time, and care that had obviously gone into its creation. She forgot herself and tried to reach out but was quickly reminded of the limits of her prison. It was a disappointment that she was unable to touch it, but she could still appreciate its beauty from a distance. “This is...it’s one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever seen, but how did you get it? And when for that matter?”

“Three days ago after I first spoke to you of Kyōto, I decided on this as a gift and began searching for a suitable specimen after we parted. It was not easy, but I tracked several candidates down. Most of the owners were not willing to sell, including the owner of this one. It was a prized piece in his collection, but he was moved by my explanation that it was for someone to whom I owed my life,” he said, pleased by her reaction to his gift. After letting her admire it up close for a few minutes, he placed it on the desk. “You will be able to gaze upon it even when I am not here. Though the flowers are ephemeral, the tree will last—and when the seasons turn, it will bloom again in a year’s time.”

“Like a love that has taken root in two hearts that are now bound together?” V asked with a faint smile.

He nodded his head in agreement and returned her smile. “I see that I am not the only one who could have been a poet in another life. You should stop underestimating yourself.”

“I guess even I have my moments—or maybe it’s the former corpo in me that does,” she said with a noncommittal shrug. Then she gave him a sly look and asked, “But back to what you were saying earlier, what _should_ we do about the problem of your clothes?”

Goro cocked his head to one side and pretended to be in deep thought as he replied, “I _did_ say that I would do whatever you asked of me within reason. Make your request, and we shall see.”

With her finger on her chin, V thought about it briefly and said, “So if I were to order you to take your jacket off....”

“I would not—because I said you could _ask_ , not _order_. Try again,” he said, tsking and crossing his arms. Then he smirked and added, “You must learn to be more polite to get what you want from me, Valerie.”

Hesitating briefly, she chose to exercise caution for once as she quickly double-checked to make sure that the smart glass had been darkened for privacy, not that Goro had ever neglected this step—he was a man who lived by his routines and security protocols after all. As for anyone barging in, that _definitely_ wasn’t going to happen. Aside from the fact that he had long since put the fear of God into every staffer working on the project, the door was locked and coded to him.

She swallowed hard as she saw him giving her that slightly smug expression of his, the one that silently said: _I know exactly what you want, but I’m going to make you beg._ “Fuck me,” she cursed under her breath, realizing that he was about to get his revenge on her for her incessant teasing over the last two days.

Goro put his hand to his ear, pretending that he hadn’t quite heard her. “What was that? You want me to fuck you? Mph, you are a very demanding _and_ impolite temptress,” he said, shaking his head and feigning disbelief as he purposely chose to misinterpret her cursing. “My heart, my dignity, my clothes, and now my cock? You are _extremely_ greedy—and you did not even say please.”

V gritted her teeth, trying to ignore what he had said about his cock even though she could feel her walls clench at the thought of having him inside her. The thing about being a hologram was that the programming recognized the physical bounds of the object or person being displayed through the projector, so the logical rules of the real world applied to the simulation, which was why you could do things like crossing your arms or your legs without your limbs passing through each other. What it didn’t give you was nerve endings and the ability to feel actual sensations. But since at least half of what made you a person was the mind itself, she could recall specific sensations in detail and could feel them so strongly at times that it was almost like experiencing a form of full-body phantom limb syndrome, but minus the pain. The problem was that she couldn’t trigger it at will, so it could happen at inconvenient times or just not happen at all.

“Would you _please_ take off your jacket, Goro?” she asked in a voice saccharine enough to give the entire populace of Night City cavities.

“Since you _barely_ managed to ask nicely...yes.” He brought the desk chair over and placed it in front of V. Then he took his jacket off and draped it over the back of the chair, smoothing the fabric before sitting down. “Better?” he asked, arms crossed again but with a hint of amusement in his voice.

“A little, but maybe seeing you with your hair down would help more...if you don’t mind?” she suggested, hoping that he would agree without making her beg.

Goro gave her a long-suffering sigh, as if it were a request that he had heard far too many times, but he complied and removed the tie holding his hair in place, draping it over his jacket. His hair fell in a dark curtain streaked with silver, and the way it framed his face softened it even as it gave him a distinctly wilder aura. “I do not understand why every woman is obsessed with my hair. It is inappropriate for work when it is like this—too easily caught on my cybernetics,” he groused, sweeping his hair back before letting it fall again.

V stared at him and wondered how it would feel if she could run her fingers through his hair, suspecting that it would feel like silk. “私の狼 (Watashi no ookami),” she said breathlessly.

“If I am your wolf, then perhaps you should be wary of my teeth,” he murmured, eyeing her neck with hunger upon hearing her endearment for him.

“You can’t _possibly_ be serious about not knowing why. Do you honestly have no idea of how handsome you are right now?” she asked, not believing for a second that he wasn’t aware of the effect that having his hair down had on her—especially when coupled with the predatory expression on his face that made her feel like she would be his next meal. “And if it’s a problem in your line of work, why haven’t you ever cut it?”

Goro let his eyes drift down between her legs for a few moments and then raised them to meet hers, giving her a smoldering look. “If you must know, other women have said that it gives them something to hold on to when my head is between their legs.” Bowing slightly to V, he briefly gave her that wolfish grin of his and added, “One day, you will be able to say the same to me. But for now, I accept your evaluation and your compliment.”

“And you say that _I’m_ the insufferable one?” V raised her eyebrow at him, glad that she had at least avoided letting him see that his words had sent another jolt of desire straight to her cunt. Despite the sexual frustration being almost unbearable, she was genuinely curious about why he kept his hair long despite it posing a potential hazard and managed to ignore the overwhelming urge to beg him to fuck her aside as she asked, “Going back to my _other_ question, why keep it like that if it’s such an inconvenience then?”

Goro turned serious for a moment, his brows furrowing. “Because it is a part of who I was in Chiba-11—the part of me that was my own and that could not be taken away even at the academy. You might call it my one act of defiance.”

“Hah, I _knew_ you had a rebellious streak in you!” she exclaimed. Even as she teased him, she filed the revelation away as one of those things that they ought to have a serious conversation about. From what little he had said to date about Chiba-11, she knew that his life in the slum wasn’t a topic that he relished discussing. And although she really wanted to know more about his childhood since it was part of what had made him into who he was, it was something that could wait for now.

He brought his thumb and index finger close enough to almost touch and said, “A small one that a certain thief has fanned into something larger—but I regret neither that nor your theft of my heart.”

“Aaaaaaaand...would you regret it if I asked you to take your shirt off?” she asked.

Goro gave her a low, rumbling laugh, and the silver rings around his eyes shone. “Probably—but I made you a promise.” Pulling his shirt free from his pants, he began undoing the hidden fastenings slowly, one at a time. He would give her what she wanted, but only at his pace.

By the time he had undone the second one, V had started to get a glimpse of his shoulders and chest. The throat guard extended down a bit farther than she had expected, and the rest of his neck collar seemed to extend a fair way across his shoulders. However, his chest seemed mostly organic, judging by the muscles that she got brief glimpses of as the gap between the two halves of the shirt began widening. She closed her eyes for a second, imagining pulling his shirt down and leaving his arms trapped so that she could have have _her_ way with him, instead of the other way around. _Or maybe handcuffs?_ she wondered, looking at him speculatively.

Goro stopped and narrowed his eyes at her after seeing her expression. “Exactly what are you plotting this time, my thief?”

“N-nothing. Nothing at all!” she protested a little too quickly. A flush of red crept up her neck, and she mentally cursed the fact that the holographic programming was advanced enough to simulate human responses that were deemed relevant to communication—like blushing.

“You are very bad at lying,” he said, pointing a finger at her neck while thinking about his own body had betrayed him in the shower. The memory of it made his cock stiffen painfully, and he saw the smirk she was giving him after looking down at his pants. Huffing in irritation, he began closing his shirt and threatened, “If you do not tell me, then I will stop right now.”

V looked him boldly in the eye and said, “Keeping you restrained so that I can climb on top of you, sink myself onto your cock, and watch you lose every last bit of the control that you’re so proud of as I fuck your brains out.”

His eyes glittered with desire and mirth in equal measure upon hearing her answer. “Such a filthy, dirty, lovely mouth on you—maybe I should fill it with my cock so that you cannot say so many impertinent things?” he asked, raising a questioning eyebrow at her. He undid another of the hidden catches and pointed at where the very last one was. “But how do you think you could possibly accomplish such a thing? If you tell me and I am satisfied with your answer, you can have this.”

“Hold on—I’m the one with a dirty mouth when _you’re_ casually boasting about your past conquests and letting it drop that you’ll go down on me? _And_ that you want to shove your cock in my mouth?” V asked incredulously.

Goro dryly said, “But I am neither boasting nor trying to seduce you. You choose to ask me these things, and I simply give you honest answers. Now then, I believe that you said before that deflecting is a ‘gonk move,’ no?”

Rolling her eyes at Goro using her own words against her, V said, “Either by pulling your shirt down around your arms—because I don’t think you’d willingly destroy anything that expensive—or maybe handcuffs.”

“Ah, you are making a joke again, yes? Because you could not get handcuffs on me—not unless _I_ allow it. Also, I can afford _many_ new shirts.” He laughed when V puffed herself up like an angry cat and realized that had been a very long time since he had laughed this freely with anyone.

“I _did_ beat Oda,” she said indignantly. “And I _would_ get the cuffs on you one way or another.”

He shook his head and with quiet confidence said, “You forget that I was his master. No, you could not do this with my implants online again.”

“Wanna bet?” she asked, daring him.

Goro proceeded to undo the last catch and let his shirt fall open. “If you want to test your theory, you may challenge me in combat when you have reclaimed your body. But if you lose, be warned that I will punish you severely.”

V nodded dumbly, not really hearing his warning as her eyes stayed locked on his now visible torso. His skin was almost entirely hairless except for the thin trail of dark hair below his navel that made her want to slowly lick her way from his throat guard all the way down to his cock, and from his chest to his stomach, his muscles were just so...fucking... _cut_. Most of the guys she’d hooked up with in the past who were probably half Goro’s age weren’t nearly as ripped, but to be fair to them, her past inputs also hadn’t been Arasaka soldiers whose bodies had been honed into weapons. Her eyes lingered on his abs, which looked like they had been chiseled out of marble by Michelangelo himself, and although his v lines were partially hidden by the waist of his pants, they angled down sharply and were almost enough by themselves to make her drop to her knees before him. The only thing marring his flesh was an array of old scars, but each of the scars was a mark of survival and persistence in her eyes. Together, they spoke of someone who had led a hard and eventful life, and the aura of danger that they gave off was damned sexy as well. She also spotted a half-healed sword wound on his side, undoubtedly from the Argentina conflict he had mentioned.

Goro snapped his fingers to get V’s attention, and she made a slightly strangled noise. “Really, Valerie? I have not even taken my shirt off yet,” he teased. Running a hand slowly down his stomach, he added, “Had I known the effect I would have on you, perhaps I would have done it sooner—especially since it leaves you speechless.”

V shook her head to clear it and gave him a rueful look. “But if _you’d_ said something sooner, we could have gone straight to fucking two years ago instead of me settling for a striptease now—and then maybe I would’ve been better equipped to deal with being in here long-term.” She started pacing like a hungry tigress locked in a cage but stopped in front of him and cupped her breasts, squeezing lightly before letting her hands slide down her body. Despite the fact that she couldn’t physically feel anything as a hologram, she had a good idea of how it would affect Goro even with her clothes on. “Should I tell you exactly how many times I thought about you while I was alone in bed at night, sliding my fingers into my pussy while pretending that it was you? Or would that just be cruel to both of us?” she asked, her right hand reaching between her legs.

His nostrils flared, and though his erection had subsided earlier, his cock turned rock hard again as he watched her actions and processed her words. Sublimating hisdesire for her and pushing it way down deep for the moment, he gently said, “You were gravely ill, Valerie—and for that reason, I could not say anything.”

“Look, I’m not angry at you—I get that you did what you thought was right. I know that that’s just how you are, but things could have been a lot different,” she said, the frustration in her voice evident as she withdrew her hand.

In his head, he tried to game out how things might have changed if he had learned to be more flexible earlier, drumming his fingers on one of the arms of the chair as he engaged in his thought experiment. After coming to a conclusion, he said, “Even if all of Arasaka-sama’s lies and omissions of truth had come out all at once and my perspective had changed sooner, I am certain that I would have remained unwilling to take advantage of you. But...it may be the case that I should have let you choose what you wanted in the remaining time that you had instead of making the choice for you.”

V sighed, unsure if she wanted to kiss him for being stupidly chivalrous or slap him for it. She had said that she wasn’t mad, but that was _before_ he had acknowledged that he had quite possibly fucked things up by acting in a unilateral manner. Deciding that it wasn’t worth it to keep beating themselves and each other up over what-ifs, she said, “Want to make it up to me in the present? Then keep going and take your shirt off— _please_.”

Goro wordlessly stood and did as she asked, adding his shirt to the growing pile of clothes draped over the back of the chair. He held his arms out for her inspection, rotating his forearms so that she could see his armored sleeves better, and then he did a full turn to let her to see every inch of his upper body since that was clearly what she had in mind. “These are new—I did not have them back then, so you do not have to add them to the list of our mutual regrets,” he said, pointing at the cherry blossom inlays.

The sleeves were like living art, the pearlescent inlays displaying hints of rainbow-like colors when the light hit them from different angles as his muscles moved and his tendons flexed. V wanted to trace every single blossom with her fingers and said, “Beautiful, just like your eyes. It’s as if someone plucked fragments of the moon from the night sky and gifted them to you—they’re so much more than just functional ’ware.”

Goro flashed V a delighted smile at her description. “Again, you surprise me with the kind of depth that I think you only pretend not to possess,” he said softly.

“Yeah, well, indulging in things like art appreciation and poetry wasn’t exactly a high priority after I was excommunicated from Arasaka—survival was. And you know as well as I do that there’s not much beauty or poetry to be had when you’re just fighting to stay alive.” She bitterly said, “I can still remember what it was like when those ‘Saka assholes shut off my implants—felt like I was being suffocated and having a heart attack at the same time.”

He nodded in understanding, wanting to reach out to squeeze her hand to comfort her. “It sounds similar to what I experienced, but you are wrong about one thing,” he said, raising a finger. “Even when you are fighting for survival in a place as terrible as Night City or Chiba-11, there are moments of beauty to be found—like fireflies dancing amongst the reeds on a summer night.”

“Since this is supposed to be an angst-free date, let’s leave all the philosophizing and poetry for another day. How about you pick up where you left off and we go back to satisfying my needs?” She pointed at his belt and made an untying motion. “Please,” she added just in time.

“I will add being lustful to your list of bad traits,” Goro said, a growl tearing from his throat as he undid the knots and pulled the belt free from his waist. Wrapping one end of the silk belt loosely around his left wrist, he pulled it taut and flexed his bound wrist experimentally before removing the belt and snapping it tight between both hands. “Do you still want to see if you can manage to restrain me? I warned you that I would punish you if you lose.” The implication was clear, and his voice had again taken on that silky tone that turned her on.

V licked her lips at the thought of him tying her up with his belt while whispering in her ear about all the different ways that he was going to fuck her, and she responded with a wanton moan that made Goro inhale sharply. Smiling wickedly at him, she crossed her wrists and held them out. “With that as an incentive, I might just throw our match and lose on purpose.”

He carefully placed his belt on top of the other items already draped across the back of the chair before taking his shoes and socks off, leaving them neatly beside the chair. Then he was in front of her before she even had a chance to blink.

Surprised that Goro could move at least as fast as Oda, she reassessed her odds against him and said, “Maybe you were right about me not being able to beat you after all....”

“Too late. You agreed to the terms earlier even if you did not realize it at the time, and I will not allow you to change them now,” he said, smirking at her. “But has your curiosity been satisfied, or do you wish to see more?”

V pouted and asked, “Are you going to make me say it?”

“Yes.” He wanted her to say it so that he would no longer have to just fantasize about it.

“Give me your cock— _now_ ,” she ordered, her voice was husky with raw need after two years of the purgatory that was Mikoshi. “And I’m _not_ saying please this time.”

Goro closed his eyes upon hearing a variation on the words that he had long wanted to hear falling from her lips, another growl emerging from his throat. Already painfully hard, her order had only increased his arousal, and his implants blazed like white-hot metal when he opened them again. “Your manners remain lacking,” he said, reaching down to caress his bulge through the fabric but making no motion to open his pants. Too sensitive by far at this point, he groaned at the contact.

“So you’re going to deny yourself relief just because I didn’t beg, my wolf? Hmm, maybe I _should_ send you home with blue balls after all if you’re going to be so fucking stubborn about it,” she said, grinning when he started glowering at her with resentment over her threat. Shrugging, she raised her hands in the air palms up and said, “It’s entirely up to you.”

Consumed by his own needs, only the ever-present awareness that he was in Arasaka Tower kept him from tearing the last of his clothes off. He slowly peeled his pants and his underwear off and then tossed both items behind him without bothering to see where they landed. Locking his eyes with V’s, he shuddered as he ran a finger along his cock and saw her lips part. The contact and her naked desire made him groan. In a strained voice, he said, “You make me lose myself at times—make me lose all sense and reason. You understand that it is a _terrible_ idea to do this here, even with the precautions in place?”

The tip of his cock was flushed, and his shaft was engorged, a prominent vein running along it visibly throbbing. Like every other part of him that she’d seen so far, his cock was as perfect as she could have hoped for, and she closed her eyes, biting her lower lip as her past fantasies about him taking her decided to flood her brain. She could practically feel him inside her walls, filling her and stretching her open, and her breathing was ragged when she finally managed to snap back to reality. “Jacking off in Arasaka Tower isn’t nearly as bad of an idea as klepping the biochip was, so I think we’re safe unless Saburo spontaneously decides to drop in for an unscheduled visit. Meanwhile, you’d better start doing something about that monster of an erection,” she said, raising an eyebrow and nodding at his swollen member. Crooking a finger at him to get him to come as close as he could to the glass, she whispered in his ear, “I want to watch you come for me—just for me and _no one_ else.”

Goro stalked over to the chair and brought it even closer to her before flinging himself into it. “Then I had better give you a good show,” he said with a snarl. With his legs spread and his flowing hair, he looked like some sort of barbarian king sitting naked on his throne, the matching sleeves on his limbs enhancing the effect.

“Fuck—I want to take you in my mouth right now and see what you taste like,” V said, licking her lips as she raptly watched his thumb circling the tip of his cock where a bead of liquid had already formed.

「俺を見て (Ore wo mite)!」he ordered her, giving himself a hard tug that made him hiss with pain and pleasure before returning to lightly caressing his shaft. Remembering that he needed to speak in English, he said, “You will look at me and tell me every last thing that you would do to me, Valerie.”

Tilting her head to the side as she thought about it, her eyes were now filled with mischief. “Thinking about you always made me so fucking wet before, just like it would right now if I had my body back. Mmmmm, I would reach between my legs to slick my fingers and palm down before wrapping my hand around you to jerk you off.”

He exhaled, his breathing ragged as he let go of his cock and licked a stripe down his own palm before returning it to his cock for a few slow strokes. Dissatisfied with the amount of lubrication, he let go and spat into his palm before pumping himself again. “What...else?” he barely managed to get out, rendered almost speechless now that he had precisely the right amount of friction.

“I’d play with your nipples, too,” she said, her breathing synchronizing with his until she let out a series of small moans that made him shudder. “I would circle them with my tongue before sucking on them and nibbling on each hard little nub as I continue running my hand up and down your shaft. Would you like that, Goro?”

He nodded jerkily, her words sending jolts of electricity straight to his cock and balls. Raising his free hand to his mouth, he sucked on his fingers and then circled the small dark oval of his left nipple before pinching it and panting at the extra stimulation. Reaching across his chest, he gave his other nipple the same treatment and moaned, his eyes almost squeezing shut before he forced himself to keep them open and on V. “Much better...than...when I was...in the shower alone...thinking of you,” he said, grunting between each handful of words.

She looked down at him, watching his muscles contract and relax as he continued to stroke himself. “You should fuck your hand the way that you’d fuck me,” she said, wanting to see what he would do.

Staring at her defiantly, he began slowly thrusting into the tunnel formed by his hand. The head of his cock barely peeked out as he kept his thrusts slow and shallow, but he gradually increased the depth of his thrust until she could see more of his tip poking out as he maintained the same agonizingly slow pace. “I would tease you like this until I have you moaning my name and begging me to let you come,” he said, almost fully in command of himself again despite his uneven breathing.

“And what if I want you to fuck me hard and fast?” V asked, her insides clenching again as she waited to see how he would respond. She was fascinated by how slow and deliberate he could be when he wanted to, but she was unable to get the thought of him pistoning his hips into her like a goddamned machine out of her head.

Smirking, he said, “Not until _I_ feel that you are ready for it.” His speed remained the same, but he twisted his wrist and hand slightly and paused to circle the tip of his cock with his thumb, gasping before returning to his slow thrusts. “I can keep this up for a _very_ long time.”

“Not if I were riding you,” she confidently said, smirking back at him.

Goro tsked and suddenly thrust almost viciously into his hand, the tip of his glistening cock fully visible now. “You have always been an impatient woman, but if you insist...” he trailed off and continued fucking his hand hard while periodically adding that twisting motion that he seemed to enjoy.

It was like V could feel every movement he was making right in her core, the ghost of past sensations having unpredictably been brought to life for the moment. When he was close to orgasming, his breathing hitched and he started slamming even more violently into his hand than before. His back arched at the very end, all the muscles in his body frozen in place except for the visible shudders traveling across his stomach as he came. His eyes burned into V as thin streams of his milky and translucent seed covered his chest and stomach, and she wanted to lick him completely clean—a thought that she promptly voiced. “If I could lick you clean right now...” she said, almost purring atGoro.

Goro growled at her, nodding in approval as his breathing evened out and he recovered enough to start moving again. “Like some kind of sex-starved 化け猫 (bakeneko)? Do not tempt me with such thoughts when we are short on time,” he said, smiling to himself at the idea of V as a ghost cat since she had caused much mischief in his life. Fishing around in one of his jacket’s hidden inner pockets, he retrieved a square of black silk and used it to clean himself off. He had his hair neatly tied up again and had most of his clothes on within a few minutes.

“You’d fuck me right now if you could, wouldn’t you,” she said as he was reaching for his jacket. It wasn’t a question, it was a declaration.

“Yes, but this must remain a one-time tryst for now...although once you have your body back, I am very eager to see who wins our bet,” he said, tossing her a sly grin. The interruption had made him stop and think for a moment. Instead of putting his jacket on right away, he opted to move the chair behind the desk first, using his jacket to avoid the kind of DNA transfer to the chair that he would be hard pressed to explain if anyone decided to examine it forensically. Once he was done, he put his jacket on and frowned at the chair. “Mph, I should have this replaced with a new one.”

V shook her head and said, “No, absolutely _not_ —I want it here as a reminder of today.” Grinning impishly at him, she added, “Besides, it’s not like you spilled all over it anyway—just on yourself.”

“Are the flowers not enough of a reminder? And yes, I had the presence of mind to at least not splatter my DNA on it,” he said dryly.

V stuck her tongue out at him. “I’m a wicked and depraved woman, what can I say? But _you_ clearly love that about me, judging by how hard you came,” she said smugly.

Goro sighed. “You will never let me live this down, will you?”

V responded with an enigmatic smile like a digital Mona Lisa but said nothing.

“It must still be cleaned then—I insist on that much at least.” Goro narrowed his eyes slightly, aware that V might prove stubborn.

Instead of fighting him on the matter, she nodded and smiled at him, clearly in a much better mood than she had previously been. “Since you gave me what I wanted, I’ll give you that much, my wolf.”

Goro bowed in gratitude and said, “It will be done while I am away. Arasaka-sama messaged me this morning to inform me that he will personally be negotiating the terms of Militech’s reparations to Arasaka with their executives over the next two days, so I must attend to him as his bodyguard.” He hastily waved his hands before she could say anything, “If you are worried, then do not be. I do not expect them to try anything—they lost, and they know what is expected now to maintain the peace. Although I will be occupied during the day, I will reschedule our time for the evening. The others on the team take over for lesser duties like standing guard at night.”

V knew he could handle himself and was hardly worried about a bunch of pussy execs—she knew what they were all like anyway. She was considerably more concerned about the allegedly improved Relic 2.0 that might bring her closer to regaining her life. “What about Rogue looking into Kang Tao?”

“She said three days, so we wait. I expect her to contact me after the negotiations, and we can do little until she has the information for us. I will be back in a few minutes—I need to wash my hands for obvious reasons,” he said, running his eyes over V’s body to memorize every line and curve before leaving the room.

*

_The Afterlife_

_Night City_

_2079_

_Day Four—5:00 p.m._

Rogue walked into Nix’s cramped room in the back of the bar. “What do you have for me on V, Nix?” she asked, not even waiting for him to get out of his netrunner chair.

He raised himself up on his elbows and looked at her through his dark lenses. “Not even I can work a miracle that quickly. I sent my spiders to pick up whatever they can on V through my backdoor into Arasaka.”

“And Kang Tao?”

Nix sighed and shook his head. “Look, not even Bartmoss could hack their shit in a day. What I can tell you from poking around in their less secure systems is that they were supposed to be meeting with Militech tomorrow and that the meet just got pushed back about two-three weeks.” He tapped out a cig, and Rogue gave him a light. Nix took a puff and let the smoke out slowly, watching the plume rise into the air. “The emperor seems to have his new balls in a twist over Argentina and is insisting that Militech pay up now, so it’s a safe bet that that’s the reason why. Maybe you should do what you do best and start pushing those chess pieces of yours around to see if anything shakes loose, while I see if I can get in any deeper past Kang Tao’s security.”

“Don’t let me down, Nix,” Rogue said.

Nix scoffed at that and said, “Have I ever? ‘Sides, I owe that girl after she saved my ass. I’ll get whatever I can on V from Arasaka by tomorrow—you have my word on that.”


End file.
